This is the third in my series of articles about choosing the best studio photographer. I speak from experience both as a customer and a teacher of photographic techniques. Having researched your potential studio photographers’ skills in the sphere of composition, you now need to check his/her abilities in the control of colour and light.
Whole books have been written on the subject of colour. Colour has a strong emotional effect on its’ viewer this statement is unequivocal. And that’s where the agreement ends. The physiological effects of colour are not contentious but how to combine them within the field of family photography is. Certain colours can raise your blood pressure, increase your rate of breathing as well as you heart rate. These physical responses are caused by the release of the hormone epinephrine. When we talk about colour, we are generally bundling together two separate elements, value and hue. Hue is an individual spot within the spectrum of colours that constitute the rainbow. A colour is actually a combination of hue and value. Value is the relative lightness or darkness of the hue which makes up what we call colours.
Combined with the emotional response caused by our perception of colour, the contrast of the values has also to be put into the mix. Similar values can actually represent contrasting colours. When hue is removed, i.e. in black and white photography, this factor has to be considered. A photograph can be completely transformed when printed without hue. Different elements of the image will come to fore. Areas of the photograph with similar values, i.e. lightness or darkness, will tend to merge or flatten, whilst those areas with widely different values will be contrasting, or stand out. The eye given such information will be drawn to the area of high contrast. This is, in part, why photographs can have a very different focus and emotional effect dependent of whether they are presented in colour or black and white.
The colours used in the photograph will effect the feelings evoked in the viewer. But how can the studio photographer take control of this. The general answer to this is that it takes both preplanning and a little skill in digital editing. The photographer will be experienced in the different psychological effects of the possible colour content of the family photograph. When planning a studio photography session an experienced photographer will advise the client to choose a simple colour range for the families clothing. When the family actually turns up for the shoot the photographer needs to make some on the fly decisions on colour elements to added or removed within the space in which this family will need to be given their photographic context.
Red is universally recognized as being associated with blood. This can be used to engender warm emotions. It can be used to good effect within family photography. Clever use of contrast between a strong red and a white can give a warm emotional feel to the photo whilst giving a modern style to the whole composition. Yellow is an optimistic joyous colour, that when over used can quickly become overwhelming, and hence produce a negative reaction in the viewer. Green is natural and calming but can easily led to sallow skin tones if not subtly lit. Blue is cool and easy to incorporate in flattering the subject. Again over use of the one colour and have negative overtones, i.e. of coolness. Violet is fun and fanciful, over use will however produce somber emotions.
A good family photographer will present the customer with a good range of both colour and black and white family photographs. These family photographs should also represent a range of different compositional styles. From these a customer will be able to communicate more successfully what their particular requirements are. Often these requirements may well be a mix and match between more than on of these example family photographs. A true professional studio family photographer will be able to integrate these requirements into their own unique instance of a family photograph.
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