Design Fundamentals for Photographers

4.3 Photo Assignment for Color

Hello everybody, welcome back to Basic Design Concepts for Photographers. This is lesson 4.4, which is the color theory photo assignment. In this assignment, there's four specific shots that I want you to try to find. The first one would be a shot where the mood or the emotion of the photo is communicated primarily through the cool tones of the exposure. Now whether these cool tones are found in a natural setting, or they're added with a gel or some other post processing technique, regardless, I'd like the final exposure to have a primarily cool-toned effect to it. So you can control the mood and emotion of the setting simply by that color. The second photo in the assignment is the opposite of that. Find a shot where the mood or emotion is communicated primarily through warm tones. Once again, this could be through a natural setting. Or it could be through an artificial or post processing effect. Either way, the photo should have a general warmness to it as a result of the warm tones found in the color palette. For the third shot, I would like you to find a subject that is highlighted by the use of contrasting or complimentary color. This could be as simple as a nice sunset with the blue sky around it or it could be something a little bit more creative too. In either case what you're looking for is a shot where there's these contrasting or complimentary colors that force the focus on the subject area. Lastly the fourth shot in the assignment I'd like you to try to find the shot or the communication of the subject is enhanced by lack or reduction of color. This would be very similar to trying to find a good black and white shot. Now I know this sounds like a strange idea to put into an assignment where you're trying to look for color but it really helps to see the benefits of color when you're looking for the other side of it and what you can do with the lack of color. So in lesson 4.4, we'll take a look at the result of this assignment and then explore how some post processing techniques can enhance them even more.