Exercise 4.1 - Measuring Exposure

This exercise consists of two parts:

1. Take pictures with exposure deliberately lighter or darker than average.

2. Take pictures at 5 different exposure levels, arranged around estimated best exposure.

Part 1


It was quite cloudy this day and one of the things that I wanted to try was to take some pictures of dark cloud against green colour of the trees and grass in the park. From the beginning I assumed that the best shot I would get should be a little bit underexposed. I started from the overexposed one, where the sky

Aperture for all three pictures was set at f/10.0, at 58mm and ISO 200. Only shutter speed was changed to reach +/- 07 EV.

With the shot being overexposed, the sky has nearly disappeared from the picture and the shot itself looks flat.

1/80 sec (+ 0.7 EV)

At average 0 EV the sky looks better, but still I find this shot a bit flat and lacking depth of field. 

1/125 sec (0 EV)

As expected from the very beginning, a bit underexposed shot looks the best. The contrast between sky and green colours of the park is seen better and the shadows are more obvious.

1/200 sec (- 0.7 EV)

For the second shot I decided to experiment with a bit different composition, where I would have bigger dark subject in the center of the composition. The tree worked well for this experiment.

Aperture was set at f/14.0, with 23 mm focal distance and ISO 200.

Overexposed for 0.7 stop has the same effect as on previous picture - the clouds are not seen at all. 

1/60 sec ( + 0.7 EV)

 It is interesting that in this case the average exposure seems to be perfect compared to the other two pictures.

1/100 sec (0 EV)

 On this shot, the tree is too dark as well as the trees and bushes on the background.

1/160 sec ( - 0.7 EV)

 The conclusion that I make from this part is that depending on the subject, the one might need to overexpose or underexpose the shot or stick to the average calculated by the camera sensor.

Part 2


1. For the first five shots I have set up camera on 30mm focal distance, IS 200, aperture at f/18.0 matrix exposure measuring. I assumed that the best shot would be the one overexposed a bit, because it would give more saturation and would highlight the contrast of the colours. I expected the one at 1/80 sec to ve the best shit, but the ones at 1/50 an 1/60 sec look actually better than the expected one.

1/30 sec

1/50 sec

1/60 sec

1/80 sec

1/125 sec

2. For the second shot I decided to experiment a bit with metering. And I tried both center-weighted and matrix metering. Though there was no much difference, I decided that matrix one looks slightly better. The lens was set at 23mm, aperture at f/18.0, ISO 200. I expected the one at 1/100 sec be the best shot. However, I liked the darker one taken at 1/200 sec more.

1/60 sec

1/80 sec

1/100 sec

1/200 sec

1/250 sec

3. For the third batch of photos I decided to take some pictures that would not have sky on it, that usually influences the estimated exposure a lot. So, I have put the lens on 130mm, with aperture 6.0 and ISO 200. As the whole picture is nearly the same tone, there was no point in using metering other than matrix one. here I was most surprised, because the darkest shot that was supposed to look far underexposed, looks the best. It shows the best contrast and the best depth of the field in the picture. Also, the saturation of colours is far better than all others. 

1/50 sec

1/60 sec

1/100 sec

1/160 sec

1/200 sec

3. For the next group of shots I decided to use my macro lens 90mm Tamron. The aperture was set at f/3.2, ISO 200. Here I have also experimented by taking two shots at the sane shutter speed of 1/100sec but using different metering - matrix and center-weight. As can be seen, there is a slight difference in this case. The center-weight one looks slightly darker. Though, the one I like the most is the one taken at 1/160sec (matrix). 

1/60 sec

1/100 sec

1/100 sec

1/160 sec

1/200

 4. For the next picture I decided to try combination of sky and water to see, how the sensor will be able to read nearly grey scenery. Focal lens 92mm, aperture f/5.6. Though it was getting darker, ISO 200 still worked fine. The scenery is fairly boring, but the best shot here is the one in the middle (1/500 sec).

1/1000 sec

1/800 sec

1/500 sec

1/400 sec

1/250 sec

5. For the last part of the task I set up the lens on 65mm and the smallest possible aperture f/5.3, as I was  mostly interested in the objects in the middle of the composition. In this case the underexposed shot taken at 1/200s looks better than the one that I would assume (1/125s).   

1/160 sec

1/200 sec

1/125 sec

1/60 sec

1/50 sec

The main conclusion that I would make out of this exercise is that it is quite often that a bit underexposed shot looks better than average estimated by the camera or the one that you have planned to be the best. The contrast and colours saturation are the major areas that were affected by changing the exposure. The overexposed shots look flat and too light, while a bit undrexposed ones have better depth of field and attract attention with saturated colours and better seen shadows. 

Assignment 3 - Colour

The idea of the whole part and the assignment was to learn, how to find and use different combinations of colours. In this assignment I have to present four groups of pictures, divided according to their position against each other in the colours circle.

1. Complementary (facing each other across the circle)
2. Similar (near each other)
3. Colours spaced about a third from each other
4. One color is presented as a small area against another colour.

I must admit that completing this part in general and this assignment in particular was not very easy task. One reason is that taking pictures outside in Estonia was not a good idea, because there was a lot of snow up until middle of April this year. The other reason is that deliberately finding combinations of particular colours appeared to be quite a challenge.
Anyway, I still tried to do both outside and inside pictures for all three groups of photos to make it more interesting.

1. Complementary

This is a classical combination that can often be seen on any lunch table: green leaves of lattice and red tomato slice. The focus is mainly on the lattice, while tomato is a bit in shadow. Though tomato was perfectly red in reality, the light of the sun makes it look a bit orange in certain parts of the picture. still, both red and green look very natural here.

90mm; f/7.1; 1/320s

As opposed to the previous picture, this one shows example of red and green combination in a different way. The colours look different from the one on the previous shot. The tones are different, look probably more saturated (but this is also because of the way sun rays are reflected from different surfaces).

250mm; f/7.1; 1/400

Here it was supposed to be combination of orange and blue. I am not quite sure that I have succeeded with a blue one. It looks very light blue. Anyway, this is one of the tones of blue vs orange combination.  

90mm; f/13; 1/5sec

Out of all assignment I like the following picture the most. I like it for the saturation of the colours and contrast. I also find combination of yellow and purple one of the most interesting, as it does not appear that often in everyday life.

90mm; f/4.5; 1/1250sec

2. Similar

Here I tried to show combination of different yellow colours with different orange colours. I am not very happy about tone of orange in the glass. Other than this, it looks fine, lemon contrasts with orange table in the background, and corn-coloured serviette looks fine in combination with more saturated lemon and orange liqueur in the glass.    

90mm; f/3.5; 1/8sec

Going further down in colours circle, I decided to take a picture of the orange and red grapefruit slices. The interesting thing is that 'the orange' looks more orange, if it is pictured on its own, while with red grapefruit it seems more "yellow". Still, I quite like this shot, though the combination of orange and and red does not seem to be super-attractive.        

90mm; f/8.0; 1/20sec

I was lucky to catch one of the sunny days, when the sky was purely blue. The green color of the roof and saturated blue sky make a very interesting combination here. To get this I underexposed the hot a bit to highlight the deep blue sky and the saturation of the green roof.

70mm; f/7.1; 1/1250sec

The next combination in the colours circle is yellow and green. It is a rather simple shot - bright yellow flower buds and green steams. This is one of the most natural combinations that may come to my mind. I also quite like the contrast with the background, as it is also a bit "greenish".

90mm; f/4.5; 1/2500sec

3. One third distance in the colours circle

This object has attracted my attention, because it shows different combinations of blue and red, that by accident appeared together in the same place at the same time. A person in a red hood is sitting on the blue bench. The blue bench itself has a red line on it. And in addition to this, there is a transparent blue bottle with a red line on it, standing next to the person. I found this coincidence rather interesting and suitable for this part of the project.  

200mm; f/7.1; 1/400 sec

This was rather simple object. I just liked the saturated yellow colour of the taxi standing next to the blue sign. And the sign itself with two red lines makes another combination of 'one third distance' colours.

100mm; f/7.1; 1/320sec

 This was one of the most difficult colour combinations to find - green vs purple. I also used cropped this part from the much bigger picture. I thought that in this way color combination would be seen in the best way, and I also liked the focus on the droplet of water. It might be that I could make it better by underexposing the shot a bit, as it seems like there are a bit tom much light on the green part.  

90mm; f/4.5; 1/400sec

And I decided to finish this bit with some still life. Here I also wanted to play a bit with different tones of orange and green colours. Orange bottle and the orange vs green bottle and the apple (which actually is green, but compared to the more saturated green bottle looks more yellow). I don't find this shot very exciting, though it might work for this part of the assignment.

90mm; f/10.0; 1/20sec

4. One color presented as small area against another colour

The first shot has been taken on the coast of Baltic sea. Here the small area of yellow sun disc is presented against orange sky.     

170mm; f/18.0; 1/125sec

I decided to continue this exercise with sill life picture. Compared to the previous picture, the contrast of the blue colour against the red is much more obvious then yellow vs orange.

90mm; f/3.5; 1/6sec

Another example of small area of green against blue. On this picture it is also seen, that colours located next to each other in the colours circle do not represent the same contrast as the ones located in front of each other in the circle. Though the green area is seen very well, it does not attract that much attention as blue colour on the previous picture.

70mm; f/6.3; 1/1250

And I decided to finalize this assignment by presenting something from the nature. The purple colour of the flower is presented against the green colourof the grass. However, the contrast look differently, because the green color of the grass on the background is not homogeneous. That's why, the purple colour of the flower might seem a bit lost among the green steams.

55mm/ f/8.0; 1/200sec

Summarizing this assignment, I would conclude that the impression that the combination of the colours leaves, very much depends on the location of two colours aganst each other in the colours circle. The most contrast is seen, when a shot has two colours located opposite to each other in the circle. Also, some combinations of colours are met in everyday life more often than the others. For example, purple and green combination looks interesting, because it is not seen as often as green vs red combination.

Exercise 3.4 - Colors into Tones in Black-and-White

The task was to take a shot of that would have green, red, yellow and blue objects on it and then convert into the black&white picture applying different filters.

This is a first time the 'gray card' was mentioned as a tool for the exercise. This is a gray color card used for mid color reference. In other words, it helps your camera sensors calculate exposure in a right way, as sensors are normally calibrated to measure objects with reflection capability of 13% (mid colors). So, every time you don't have a mid color object in the frame, sensors are calculating the exposure in a wrong way.  

So, I went to the nearest photo store and bought myself a set of B.I.G gray cards 18% reflection, that has two cards 20x25cm and one card 10x12cm in the kit.

Then, I have put together the composition with all needed colors - blue, green, red, yellow. And I have placed a gray card to the center to record exposure figures from it. Looking now at this picture I realize, that gray card could be placed better, as at this angle too much light from the window was reflected and I could not rely on the automatic exposure metering. I just compared visually the 'right' gray color of the the card with the grey color I got. Using this technique, the shot still needed to be a bit underexposed according to the exposure values shown by the camera. I guess, if I have put the gray card about 90 degrees to the table, the exposure settings shown by the camera exposure equilibrium would show the same values I got in the end.

After I was satisfied with gray color I got, I have recorded the settings and removed the gray card from the composition. Using the same settings I have finally come up with a shot below. Of course, to keep composition the same, I was taking pictures from the tripod.

90mm; f/25.0; 1/8 sec; ISO 200

 As a second part of exercise I had to convert this colorful picture into black and white and apply different filters. 

1. Default Black and White

If I look at the brightness scale with default settings, it looks like this: red (40), yellow (60), green (40), cyan (60); blue (20); magentas (80).

I could have used default filters from Photoshop settings, but I decided to play bit with colors scales myself.

2. Red filter

Because the most red tones were in two berries on the picture, they have changed the most, when I have increased  red color tones to 172. As there were also red tones in lemon and I did not like the way it looked after the red tones adjustment, I have put it in balance by decreasing yellows value to 17. This has also influenced the green leaves, that also had some yellow tones ad became a bit darker. 

3. Yellow filter

When applying yellow filter, I have put yellows value to 148, which has made lemon look almost nearly. To make the leaves look not too light, I reduced greens to 28 and to add some contrast with red berries, I have put reds value to -4. 

4. Green filter

Here I have set up greens for maximum of 300. But because leaves also contain some yellow tones, it did not make them completely white. To add some contrast with a tea pot, I have reduced cyans to - 46.

5. Blue filter

As the only blue object here is a teapot, I have set up the blue filter to maximum of 297 to get white color instead. In this case, white color of the tea pot does not disturb the composition and does not make tea pot look unnatural, because there are also some cyan tones in it, which I kept untouched.   

Commenting this exercise, I can say that it was the most interesting and useful out of all exercises on colors that I have made in this part. Now I know that gray cards exist, and that they can be used in several ways. One of them I applied in this exercise. 

Experimenting with colors as tones of black-and-white photo was also very useful for better understanding of the opportunities of black-and-white photography and processing of pictures. 

Exercise 3.3 - Color Relationships

This exercise consist of two parts. The idea of the first part was to create three pictures, each representing the primary and secondary color in given proportions. The second part implied taking pictures of different color combinations, that just would appeal to me, without considering theoretical balance between colors.

Part 1.

1. Red:Green - 1:1

As weather is still quite ugly here in Estonia, I did not have an option other than taking pictures of artificial objects and working with macro. Here, I have pictured some advertisings that created a perfect combination of red and green in proportion 1:1.

145mm; f /7.1; 1/5 sec

2. Orange:Blue - 1:2 

Here I am not quite sure that proportion is 1:2. It could be worth using a different background.  

90mm; f/18.0; 1/6 sec

3. Yellow:Violet - 1:3 

In this case I am quite happy with proportion of the colors, though the picture itself might look too simplistic.  

90mm; f/18.0; 15 sec

Part 2.

1. This picture looks a bit like a saturation scale in Photoshop, though nothing this picture has not been processed at all. The interesting thing here is the transformation of the light rose/violet color to red, and then to the black. Black sky on the top and dark buildings on the bottom give certain balance to the gradual red. 

78mm; f/ 5.3; 1/5 sec

2. In this picture spots of different colors on light background as well as diagonal created by the flowers create the balance and make this shot dynamic, though the yellow color in the front looks more dominating than other two colors of the flowers.

18mm; f/ 3.5; 1/30 sec

3. On this picture the boxes are not in specific order and they also are not the same color. I would say, they create more disbalance here than balance the color scheme of the landscape. However, it does not seem to disturb the composition as a whole. If not these colorful spots on the shot, there would not be any sense to take a picture of this place at all. They create the composition and colors diversity is the most interesting part of it.  

38mm; f/9.0; 1/125 sec

The most important lesson that I have learned from this exercise is that though there are some standard color relationships ratios that put two colors in some kind of balance, the balance of color itself is not a goal. It might be used, when taking pictures, but in many cases, colors that are not in balance create more interesting image.  

Exercise 3.2 - Primary and Secondary Colors

The idea of the task was to take 6 pictures, each representing one color out of the spectrum. What makes this task more complicated that it should not be artificial objects, like red door or blue teapot. The objects should be more natural instead. 

I must admit, that fulfilling such exercise in the mid of March in Estonia is a complete disappointment! The only colors you can find here this time is grey and white, because of the amount of melting dirty snow and cloudy sky. If it was autumn, I could easily take 6 nice landscape pictures that would work perfect for this exercise.  Unfortunately, this time I should mostly limit myself to macro pictures and use some of my earlier pictures. I just decided that they are good enough for the exercise and it would be a mistake to use something worse instead.

So, first of all, here is the colors spectrum that I had to represent in the exercise:

1. Green. 

This is one of the few green things that you can find outside in this season of the year. 

90mm; f/3.2; 1/600 sec 

2. Yellow

What can be more yellow than a melon on a yellow plate? It seems like the focus could be moved a bit upward. And I am not very sure about the composition. It looks strange...

 

90mm; f/4.5; 1/40 sec

3. Orange 

This is a lantern light in the night with a lot of insects on it. This is one of the older pictures taken in summer. 

155mm; f/6.3; 1/1000 sec

4. Red

The good thing about this picture is tat it has different tones and variations of red color, from the most saturated red berries to slightly rose leaves.   

250mm; f/6.3; 1/60sec

5. Purple

This picture was taken in October last year from one of Tallinn bridges. I remember this amazing evening, all kinds of colors in the sky, and when sun was nearly in down, it became deep purple.   

120mm; f/6.0; 1/3 sec

6. Blue

This shot has been taken on Create Island last summer. I just decided, that it would be good to use it, as it  shows different tones of the blue, including 'classical' blue from the spectrum of colors.

85mm; f/10.0; 1/250 sec

This exercise shows the diversity of the colors and by taking each picture at different exposures, I could again learn the importance of the color saturation. 

Exercise 3.1 - Control the strength of a color

The second assignment has been completed, and I a moving further with exercises for the third part of the course.

This exercise was supposed to show, how the color changes with different exposures. I had already noticed this feature before, taking landscapes pictures, when sky is very bright. This time I have chosen rose color wall with some shadows on it. All shots were taken at 250mm focal length and ISO200.

So, here are the pictures of the same object at different exposures:

f/7.1; 1/200 sec

f/8.0; 1/200 sec

f/9.0; 1/200 sec

f/10.0; 1/200 sec

f/11; 1/200 sec

f/13.0; 1/200 sec

f/16.0; 1/200 sec 

The camera was showing the of f/10 and 1/200 sec as a perfect combination. If I was choosing the best shot out of them, I would take one of the underexposed - the one taken at f/11.0 or at f/13.0, because the color looks stronger on these two shots. 

The conclusion from this exercise is that colors look stronger, if image is underexposed, and the other way around.