Sunday, January 30, 2011

Class 1, January 31st: When Does Color Matter?

After a semester of shooting black & white are you anxious to shoot color? Are colors necessary to tell a story? Can you think of certain historical images that would have been more powerful if taken in color? When is color essential? Do we know enough about shape and form from everyday seeing that color isn't even necessary in photographs?

What is more informative...form or color?

Take for example this famous image, from the Vietnam war of a little girl, naked and covered with napalm burns. Associated Press photographer Nick Ut captured the shot in 1972, just before helping the 9-year-old girl to a hospital in South Vietnam. What if the image were in color? What if you could see the blood and burns on her skin? What if you could tell the grass behind her was not green but covered in ash? What if you could see that the smoke in the background was red and full of flames? Would it make it any more devastating? Or is it just as much or more powerful in B&W?


I think of Steve McCurry as the photographer who shot the "girl with the green eyes". This iconic image of the Afghani refugee was taken by McCurry, a National Geographic photographer, and became wildly famous. Would it be as powerful if her eyes were not green but brown? What if the background wasn't green? What if the shot was in B&W? Would it be as striking?




Photographer/astronomers in the 1800's were fascinated with photographing the moon when only black and white photography was available. They could see through the telescope more or less what it looked like, but how important was it for them to record that image in color? Color photographs were taken by the first men on the moon in the late 1960's of the "moon soil". The photos show the gradations of gray, but could almost be mistaken for black and white images. How much more powerful was it for the American people to see the first photos on the moon containing a flag in color and a blue earth in the distance? Would those first man-on-the-moon pictures be just as powerful had they been in B&W?

Click to enlarge:

Ryan McGinley's Olympians

Photographer Ryan McGinley used color in an emotive way to photograph some of this year's Winter Olympics athletes. These images ran in the NY Times Sunday Magazine.

Click here for a full slideshow: http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/olympics/2010/highfliers/index.html?ref=magazine




Photographer Frank Relle

Photographer Frank Relle uses colored lighting in an interesting way. Using long exposures and gelled continuous lights, he takes portraits of houses in New Orleans at night. His use of color is important in the story he is trying to tell. Relle started photographing houses in this manner years before Hurricane Katrina happened and has continued since.







photos by www.frankrelle.com

Welcome to Color Class! Required Text and Grading Policy

This class is going to be fun! We will explore everything you need to know to make successful color photographs and prints. The emphasis will be digital, but we will also look at different types of 35mm color film.

Throughout this course, we will be looking at COLOR and how it applies to Photography. Click HERE to see some of the final project work done by students in last year's color class.

We will talk about:
What specific colors mean
How to use color creatively to portray a certain mood
How to get accurate color indoors and outdoors
How to get accurate color when photographing mixed lighting situations
How to make prints that show the same color as your computer monitor
Color profiles, Calibration and Color management


We will also look at a variety of different photographers who shoot in color. You will have to do a presentation on one artist who shoots in color.

Other Projects Topics Include:
Color as Emotion
Changing Color of Light at Different times of Day
Using Gels on Continuous Lights and Flash
Daylight Film vs. Tungsten Film
Making Successful Prints
Chrome vs. Negative Film & Cross Processing
Using Photoshop to change/correct colors

Most assignments will be shot digitally, but a couple will be in film. You can check 35mm SLRs (both film and digital) out of the equipment room if you don’t own them.


Materials You'll Need:
A Hard Drive- THIS IS ESSENTIAL! Backing up your work is important. A flash or thumb drive is not good enough.
Lacie 1TB

Gels (Pack of large 10" gels)

Free Rosco Gels
(small gels will fit on end of your flash)

Info on what Gels are, click here.

Grading Policy:
Class attendance and participation: 15%
Completion of weekly assignments ON TIME: 40%
Midterm Project: 10%
Artist Presentation: 10%
Final Project: 25%

*Your assignment or project grade will fall one letter each week it is late. If you do not hand in a final project, the highest grade you can get in the class is a C. More than 3 unexcused absences may result in you NOT passing the class.

Useful Links:

Print Lab at FIT 8.5x11" prints are $5

Required Text:
Photography by Barbara London, 10th Edition


** I recommend buying this book at the Barnes & Noble at FIT between the A&B Buildings. It's about the same price as Amazon: $95 for used.

Syllabus

Click to enlarge: