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Graphing Color

Color - Theory  Comment
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Graphing color can help you identify colors more specifically and understand relationships between color better. One way to graph color is to use the Color Sampler Tool in Photoshop in combination with the Apple color picker.
To access the Apple color picker choose Photoshop: General Preferences and change Color Picker from Adobe to Apple and click OK. To see the new the color picker click on Set Foreground Color or Set Background  Color icon in the Tool bar.
Unlike the Adobe color picker, the Apple color picker is a color wheel. Creating and using color wheels to describe color and plot color relationships is a time honored tradition dating back to Leonardo DaVinci. Some of the most famous color wheels were created by Newton, Goethe, and Munsell. The Apple color picker is an additive color wheel where complements are defined as red and cyan, green and magenta, and blue and yellow.
You can sample any color in an image and find its position on the Apple color wheel.  Using the Eyedropper Tool, sample a color in a composition. Then click on the Set Foreground Color icon. The Apple color wheel will appear and a small circle will plot the sampled color. You can make a record of this chart by taking a screenshot of the color wheel (caps lock, Shift, Command, 4). This will create a PDF document on your desktop, which can be opened in Photoshop.
You can combine multiple sample points into a single chart by taking multiple screenshots, opening them in Photoshop, and combining them. Drag the Background layer from one document into another and give it a meaningful title.  Make sure the two layers are registered with one another. Then, mask off everything on the top layer except the circle identifying the color on the color wheel, the triangle identifying it’s luminosity on the slider to the right of the color wheel, and a portion of the color bar above the color wheel. You’ve just graphed the two colors on the Apple color wheel. You can do this with as many colors as you desire.
Once colors have been graphed you will be able to identify a variety of relationships between colors, both colors that exist in a composition and colors that do not.
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NIK Software Discount – 15% Off

Discount Limited Time, Software  Comment
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Get %15 off all NIK software products with this code – JPCNIK.
HDR Efex Pro
Color Efex Pro
Silver Efex Pro
Sharpener Pro
Dfine
Viveza
Capture NX
NIK software is among the best of the best in the digital imaging industry.
Just look at all the awards it’s won.

It makes complicated tasks easy. How?
“Photoshop plug-ins take away some of the most labour-intensive photo manipulations and replace them with an easier to use “script”, or presets. Nik plug-ins go one step further and provide the user with a unique ‘U-Point’ technology, allowing for customisation of individual image parameters. And all presets can be further customized to each photographer’s taste.”
With so many great choices, where do you start? I recommend you look very closely at HDR Efex Pro (the most visual and intuitive HDR interface available) and at Tonal Contrast in Viveza or Structure in Sharpener Pro (Clarity or High Pass sharpening on steroids).
Find NIK Software products here.

Unknown Patagonia – Free eBook – Linde Waidhofer

Books - eBooks  Comment
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Linde Waidhofer has released her latest book – Unknown Patagonia – available in hardcover or as a free ebook.
“This book is a visual exploration of a precious and so-far unspoiled part of the world that I have fallen in love with. But Central Chilean Patagonia, the Patagonia that no one knows, is a threatened landscape—threatened by destructive mega-dam projects and enormous ugly power transmission lines.”
Read more on Outdoor Photographer.
Download Unknown Patagonia here.
You’ll also find 6 other free ebooks of her beautiful landscape photography.

Learn more about Linde Waidhofer here.
Find out about my Patagonia digital photography workshop here.

The Temperature of Color – Warm or Cool

Color - Psychology, Color - Theory  Comment
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An essential quality of color is temperature. Temperature can be used to attain a color balance. Temperature can be used to enhance spatial relationships within an image. Temperature can be used to elicit psychological responses within the viewer. Understanding and exploring the dynamics of temperature in color can benefit any visual artist.

There are physical characteristics of color linked to temperature. The color temperature of light (Kelvin degrees) is determined by measuring a black body radiator (an object heated so that it emits light). As the physical temperature of the object rises, color transitions from red (long wavelengths – low energy) to blue (short wavelengths – high energy) through ROYGBIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). When it comes to light sources, physically, blue is warmer than red.

There are also psychological qualities of color linked to temperature. Psychologically, blue is cooler than red. These associative qualities of color with regard to temperature are almost universally accepted. This is due in large part to our physical environment – water is blue, plants are green, sunshine is yellow, fire is red.

Using the qualities of one sense (touch) to describe the qualities of another (sight) can be a tenuous affair and may lead to ambiguity and confusion. The more precise a language is the more useful it is. The language of HSL (hue, saturation, luminosity) is a very precise language. When using the language of HSL, hue values mark a position measured in degrees on a color wheel. A circle has 360 degrees, so the scale is 0 – 359.

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