The Beauty And Science Of Color

Yes, Robert, My favorite color is red, blue, and yellow - and whatever comes from those if just perfect

If you are a nature/landscape photographer, and are still using film....I sure hope you use Fuji Velvia film.

Fuji Velvia is one of the most commonly used films for professional quality landscape and nature photography. Soon after its introduction a number of years ago, Velvia became the film of choice for many professional landscape photographers because of its high resolution, fine grain, and saturated colors. It is known for its extremely high level of color saturation and image quality.

Vivid color really gets my brain in gear; it's my love of color that got me into this wacky business, in the first place! :-)
I'll occasionally work in black and white, but the image really has to be crying out for it. Color is always my first choice.

Red is my favorite color, with red/gold/black being my favorite combination. Really, though, any colors will do! :-)

Vividly colored abstract -



A more gently-colored abstract landscape -



Here's a link to an interesting online site re: the science of color. Some readers might find it interesting:

http://www.colormatters.com

I enjoy studying color combinations and experimenting with concepts on my color wheel. I also enjoy black and white and subtle colors as well.

The Color Wheel...
A color circle, based on red, yellow and blue, is traditional in the field of art. Sir Isaac Newton developed the first circular diagram of colors in 1666. Since then, scientists and artists have studied and designed numerous variations of this concept.

Too Little Color and Too Much color...
At one extreme is a visual experience that is so bland that the viewer is not engaged. The human brain will reject under-stimulating information.
At the other extreme is a visual experience that is so overdone, so chaotic that the viewer can't stand to look at it.
The human brain rejects what it can not organize, what it can not understand. The visual task requires that we present a logical structure. Color harmony delivers visual interest and a sense of order.

Lisa...
Just looked at your "colorful" portfolio....Love your use of vivid color.

O-R-A-N-G-E ;O)



Happy Summer ;O)

Wow, orange is an understatement....

If you enjoy vivid color, look at the images of the old time Fauvists (wild beasts of color). Fauvism is the style of les Fauves (French for "the wild beasts"), a loose group of early twentieth-century Modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong color over the representational or realistic values retained by Impressionism. The leaders of the movement were Henri Matisse and André Derain.

Besides Matisse and Derain, other artists included Albert Marquet, Charles Camoin, Louis Valtat, the Belgian painter Henri Evenepoel, Maurice Marinot, Jean Puy, Maurice de Vlaminck, Henri Manguin, Raoul Dufy, Othon Friesz, Georges Rouault, Jean Metzinger, the Dutch painter Kees van Dongen and Georges Braque (subsequently Picasso's partner in Cubism).

The paintings of the Fauves were characterized by seemingly wild brush work and strident colors, while their subject matter had a high degree of simplification and abstraction.

Some of my fav high-key colour works...nice thread....

Oh wow, I don't think that I have a favorite color anymore, nor do I prefer vivid versus subdued. I can like one or the other, depending on the ambience or mood/feel trying to be evoked. This may be why my paintings can vary quite a bit in this respect. For me I try to find good combinations of color, and I like to play with that.

Needless to say I LOVE color.

A few examples of my Vivid, half-vivid-half-pastel, and pastel application

Yes, I love vivid colors. This is one example of many.

I love the drama of vivid color. Here's my celebration of that.

I love them all!

One look at my portfolio and anyone can tell that I agree with you 100%, Robert. Color IS a gift from God! It is one of the most wonderful blessings of our daily life. I adore bright color, and love high saturation. I could easily stand to be deaf, but it would kill me to be blind.

Hi Robert, I LOVE color...all of it. I can't say I have a favorite...it depends on the day and my mood. I enjoy experimenting with color and how the brain translates it, how the combination of colors actually change how we see the color. Lately I've been feeling kind of black and have been experimenting with that and it's use as a color. How to use a lot of it without "seeing" black. that probably makes no sense :)

@ Vivian Thank you!

Many people believe that colors are powers....Here are some of the meanings of colors.....

Red symbolizes: action, confidence, courage, vitality.....

Pink symbolizes: love, beauty....

Brown symbolizes: earth, order, convention.....

Orange symbolizes: vitality with endurance.......and so on and on....

Here is Pretty in Pink...

I Love color! I'm considered a colorist when painting with soft pastels...and I love doing colorful abstracts, such as this latest image!

I find the interplay between colors, to be endlessly fascinating......interesting thread!

Thank you, Robert. Although I love color, I want my colorful paintings to have a scientifically based schematic instead of a spontaneous one. After so many years of referring to the color wheel, I think I have the entire concept of complementary, triad, tetrad, mono chromatic, analogous, candlelight distortions, the value of chroma and on and on... completely memorized and I bet no one cares about this stuff, but I know about color. Now, I need to bring my compositions to the same level. Good luck to me with very little time on hand.

Rebecca, that is a very cool print!!

oh yeah, and I use them all!

Scientists have studied the effect of color on our mood, health and way of thinking for many years.
The effect of colors on emotion is currently a topic of much interest.

I prefer color (most of the time) over black and white just because I have had a depressed persona most of my life. It's easier for me to be in a positive mood if my images are in color.
In the United States, Baker-Miller Pink has been used in jail cells to calm prisoners. Dr. Alexander Schauss Ph.D., director of the American Institute for Biosocial Research in Tacoma Washington stated, ” (pink is a) tranquilizing color that saps your energy. Even the color-blind are tranquilized by pink rooms” (Walker, pp. 50-52).

Stunning image, Marlene and yes, you have amazing color combinations in your work.

I also like purples...



bob

Mr. Galka...
Love your Hibiscus....Very powerful image for my eyes....I can look at it for a very long time....

I like purples and greens and cobalt blues, these have always been my favorite before doing any art, I am very fortunate that these colors with a little luck can be produced on my sculptures by heating the copper to about 1800 to 2000 degrees and getting just the right combination of the welding gases.

Thanks, Lisa...you are quite the colorist yourself POST SOME

my pallette really took off with this series of raptors..I needed hot, scary color!

For the life of me - I can not get that color wheel memorized. So I just work intuitively.

My preference is the harmony and balance of color triads. Interesting enough, my house is decorated in a subdued palette - I simply can not have it competing with my thoughts.
But I love bursts of green, orange & purple though out.
My Watercolor work is usually bold & cheerful

Example of my blues and purples the green is a bit more evasive and requires more heat and then I loose the blues and purples, it's tedious but I don't obsess over it because with time it will take on an altogether different color/patina, the one I give is transient.

Robert.. thanks... regarding the hibiscus ;O)
It did start it's life as a photograph... the result you see is totally photoshop... really the only tool one needs ;O)

Oh.. and thanks for this thread... a feast for the eyes.

bob

Did somebody say COLOR ? Really enjoying this

P.s. I think we could get used to the "kinder and gentler Robert."

P.s. I am looking for literature on Vibrational frequencies of color & how they affect health.

I have not lucked out with Internet research - if anyone is familiar with such please let me know. Thanks

Ok.. back to Orange.. but not so much this time... ;O) look there's a bit of green in this one...



bob

@Janine... there was a bit on the morning news to day about Blue.. ( and specifically the blue color water ) it has a calming effect that seems to be instinctive.
I'll try to find it.. don't touch that dial ;O)

bob

@Janine... here ya go...

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/wallace-j-nichols-blue-mind-book-tries-to-prove-the-ocean-washes-stress-away/

bob

http://www.annemeplon.com/colors.htm

Lots of colour vibes,info,etc there, Janine.

Fuji pro400 120 film, pinhole.


Fuji Pro400 N90 camera

Thank you for posting my painting Fall Bouquet, Janine. That was very kind of you.

Robert, thank you, very good topic for discussion! often I take to favorites picture precisely seeing color and not the subject and composition. I love sunny, positive palette.
pink and blue, turquoise and orange...

(I don't understand how to insert a picture that was all seen it)
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/breath-of-spring-irina-effa.html
(If you find any mistakes, please, let me know, I'm working to improve my English.)

Here's some Velvia for you, Robert:



However, I probably altered the saturation while I was scanning it. It's pretty near impossible not to alter things in scanning.

Janine,
The kinder gentler Bob is brought to you by prescription pharmaceuticals.....My wife said something like "get back on your meds or find another wife."
Back to the beauty and science of color....

For photographers Peter Turner (for the past 50 years) is perhaps the master of dramatic color and graphic composition. Turner achieves his vision by combining the technical tools of photography with a perceptive eye for compositional color. He learned to manipulate hue and saturation early in his career......

Here is a pic of mine that I created during post processing...

This is a great convo. My father-in-law is an architect whose firm specializes in municipal buildings, including jails. His style is contemporary, and he uses color carefully. He has done exhaustive research into the psychological effects of color on prisoners' behavior, including inmate interviews. He has used the results of the research to prescribe hues for specific areas of these facilities: A calming blue used for inmates' day rooms; orange, which stimulates appetite, used in eating areas. And because it increases brainwave activity and seems to lengthen time, red for visiting areas.

Often less color is more:



Other times a blast of color is in demand:

I like all different colors

Newton, with his alchemical aproach, took a prism and broke sunlight into it's constituent parts. Realizing these colors if shined through a prism could no longer be broken down, Newton discovered the archaem of light.
Color and it's effects on emotions is a science of beauty function.

Here is a quote from photographer Ken Rockwell...
"Color is my subject. I'm not a nature or portrait or landscape or sports or architectural photographer. I'm a photographer of color. I don't care about the apparent subject so long as it's in glorious light or is vividly colorful. Why do I photograph toilets as often as trees? Simple: if they are vivid and have an interesting play of color, they're my subject."

I am almost tempted to go his way just because vivid color lifts my mood. I use color as a positive mood enhancer.
Here I combine my two loves in photography....candid street images of people and glorious color added in post processing.

I thought color did not exist -- just the way our brains perceive light. But whatever ... greens and blues are what I'm drawn to every time.

As a colorist - I really love what you are doing with your street photography now Robert. It pops !

Thank you so much Bob & Vivian for your help & providing that information - both were informative. I am so surprised there isn't more to delve into. Future project.

p.s. RFG - wife is usually right. Happy wife - happy life. Keep it up.

@Patricia: color is the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum(frequency of wavelength). Some animals see beyond what humans can see. Some humans can see better than others while others can't even see the obvious. LOL!

Thanks, Drew. I wonder if there are colors out there that we can't even perceive of. Robert Frank, color and street photography seem to go hand in hand.

Gotta get in on this!

Color is all that I do! Love really vivid, eye-popping colors. Currently working in wax and while I enjoy how it flows onto the page, I am having some trouble getting the lighter colors to pop.

Janine,
thanks. U R the second person today who said to me... "I really love what you are doing with your street photography now Robert. It pops !"
I try to combine my two interests but not every candid street image is suitable for saturated color...

U also wrote: p.s. "RFG - wife is usually right. Happy wife - happy life. Keep it up."
Funny, because I call my wife "Old 99" meaning she is right 99 out of 100 times....

Fun Quote...
"Artists can color the sky red because they know it's blue. Those of us who aren't artists must color things the way they really are or people might think we're stupid." - Jules Feiffer

As a young science minded child I asked a lot of questions to my art teacher about mixing color and the theory behind it. He never really answered them but said I would be thrown out of class if i kept asking. I then asked the same questions to a physics teacher years later and he said I could be thrown out of class for asking irrelevant questions. I finally got answers about the physics behind mixing colors many years later from a science minded artist who explained how additive and subtractive colors worked.

http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/oldcolor/additive-subtractive.htm

Love that quote by Feiffer. I absolutely agree...you have to know the rules before you break them.