Part One- Commentary
So. Colour’s a thing that exists.
[CUE TITLES]
On this video today we’re going to be looking at three photographers; Steve McCurry, Nick Knight, and Frans Lanting, and show how these three men use colour in their photos to make their photos more memorable. Stand out from the crowd. Make people go “wow. That’s cool. If only I could make a cool photo like that.”
Okay lets start with McCurry.
[STEVE MCCURRY]
You’ve probably heard of this man at least once. Steve McCurry is an American Photographer who works in photojournalism and editorials. He’s done a lot of cool things in the realms of portrait photography.
Portrait photography is when you take a photo of a person, or a group of people. The best ones can give you a looksee into their lives, their personalities and the cultures they are in. And Steve McCurry is a KING when it comes to this. He manages to use light, position and yes, colour to give you a beautiful and timeless look into people’s lives and cultures.
This is Afgahn girl. It was taken in 1984 for the 1985 issue of National Geographic, and is one of his most famous photos of all. Even if you haven’t heard of McCurry, you’ve heard of Afgahn girl. In Afgahn girl, there are two main colours in it; red and green. These two are complementary colors. Complementary colors are any colors that are on the opposite side of the color wheel, which create the most contrast. Remember that. I bring it up a lot in this video. If you look here, This red is actually kind of boring on it’s own, but when you bring the green in, it becomes more vibrant. This is because, like a good relationship, the green brings out the best in the red. So these colors are being used here, to drag attention. The green in the negative space (be warned. I also say that a lot in this video) contrasts the red, which makes it pop, which contrasts the green in her eyes. THAT GREEN. THIS GREEN IS IMPORTANT because the red makes the green stand out, which makes it seem like the girl is looking at you, because you are naturally drawn to them.
RED BOY. Red boy is a nice picture. It was taken during the festival of Ganesh, where a boy has painted himself red, to save Ganesh’s rebirth, because his father murdered him on accident- I’m getting off topic. Here in this video, the cyan in the background is a cold color, while red is a warm color. These colors also bring the best in each other. Another reason why this is a so memorable, is because it looks straight out of a horror movie if you didn’t know the context. Look at this. The red is splashed on the blue in a very scattered manner, and the seriousness on the boy’s face gives a violent undertone, similar to horror movie posters. All of this combined makes a very good and memorable picture.
This lovely lady here was taken in Kashmir. First off, the color in the background is not only dull, but blurred. This makes us pay more attention to the bright and in focus part of the picture. Now. Look at the girl’s clothing. It’s blue. Very blue. Super blue. Now usually, blue would give us the feeling of melancholy and sadness, but in this one, with the way it’s positioned and the expression of the girl, makes it seem more confident. And significant.
Now we move on to NICK KNIGHT.
[NICK KNIGHT]
Nick Knight is a Fashion Photographer from England, and is the director of SHOWstudio.com. Fashion Photography is a genre that is basically photographs where the clothing is the main focus. The best of these photos show off the clothing AND the model together. Nick Knight uses a choice of colour palette to make his photos seem out of the ordinary, yet still memorable.
This photo is named Devon Aoki (the name of the model) which was made for Alexander McQueen in 1997. Nick Knight is very good with color palettes. This color pallette uses only cool colors, which not only gives us a very cold feeling, he uses futuristic colors, which make the overall feeling of this picture to be very futuristic. The negative space in the background is very dull and has nothing in it, so not only does that focus all our attention on Aoki, It amplifies the cold, futuristic setting that the photo has provided. Now look at that eye. You probably already are, it’s the most prominent thing on that photo. It’s on a higher saturation than litrerally everything else, which drags your attention to it, making it seem like, like Afgahn Girl, Devon is looking at you. All of these factors make a photo that is truly alien.
Meet björk. Bjork is an artist from iceland, who does songs that pan over several genres. She’s also an actress, record producer, and a dj. And won the Female solo artist award in 2016. So she’s kind of a big deal. This photo is an album cover for her third album, homogenic. (it’s. a really good album.) Since this is an album, not only does this have to sell the music, but also stand out from the crown. Nick Knight does this by making the ENTIRE COLOUR PALETTE CONTRAST WITH EACH OTHER. The red contrasts the blue, the light peach contasts the black, the yellow rings on her neck are the legitimate complementary color to the purple on her sash. This gives off a very strange and weird look, which is good, because it goes great with the overall feel of the songs in the album, which are all pretty avant-garde. Björk’s previous album covers, like the one we’ve been looking at, are all also weird and strange, and Homogenic not only stands out, but it fits nicely with the other albums in the lineup.
Moving away from things that may appear in your dreams, here’s something that might occur in your nightmares. This is War. Well. War 18. This is the eighteenth picture in a series of pictures. This picture was inspired by Guernica, made by Pablo Picasso in response to bombings during WW2. Now if you thought Red Boy was midly violent, this picture is that times ten. The white in the negative space is basically obliberated by the men in the front, bright red paint and black paint splattered around as if it was attempting to drown the area, almost like how blood would in war zone. It sublimily creates a message that, this is the type of thing that taints and scars people, with the red and black splashing against the white. It’s simple 4 color pallette is stricking enough, with the way it’s being used, to get it’s point across with just the title.
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FRANS LANTING!
[FRANS LANTING.]
Frans Lanting is a wildlife photographer from the Netherlands. Wildlife Photographers are people that make a living taking pictures of natural scenery and wild animals. Their job is to travel to areas with a lot of Wildlife, and rarely anything manmade, and take photos there. Hence. Hence the name.
This photo is of a parrot in flight. Unlike the girl from Kashmir, everything in this photo is blurred. The colors of the parrot stand out more, with the three primary colours, and the green being more blurry, letting us enjoy the beauty of the bird. This gives us the illusion of birds flying through the air from a top perspective, as if a drone is following them.
This next photo from a land far far away, is of a river in _____. The color palette of blue and green in the negative space gives off a calm feeling. The yellow in the leaf, contrasts the background, but it also blends with the blue in way, so it’s not too prominent. The gradient that the water makes drags out attention to the middle of the photo, which brings the “reader” in, and lets them enjoy the picture as they lean out.
The color palette in this photo is brown, which is used as an darker orange, The brown is saturated, making the photo seem calm and cooling, but also shows us the nitty gritty of how dirty and muddy the area is. However, one of the most important things in this photo isn’t the amount of color, but lack thereof. In one of his Ted Talks, Photos that give voice to the animal kingdom, Frans talks about how he wants to show animals [cue that video about him looking past skin and fur and scales and blab la bla] In this photograph, he subtly shows this with a very limited colour palette, with all of the turtles being the same color. Aside from lighting, you can barely tell the difference between any of the turtles besides their shape, which homes in the message that nomatter how different looking we all are, we are all still the same inside, and we should celebrate our differences and similarities.