Colour Block: Our Response to Colour

I had a lot of fun with this assignment! It really makes you realize how many colours are present in our world, and how easy it is to find them. I came across a lot of great colours and was able to make them work with interesting content as well. I think many people (myself included), never really think about colours and their connection to our human emotions.

Magenta (Pink): My pink image is one of my favorites in this collection of colours. I find that it makes the drummer more mysterious. I feel 'mystified' when looking at the image, and kind of 'mellow' in a way. My objective viewer (my dad) felt 'smooth', 'mellow', and 'mystery'.

Green: When I look at my green image, it makes me feel youthful, and I want to get up and go for a run. The green is punchy and the more subtle green on the wall behind it neutralizes things and is more nature like. It was interesting when showing this to my dad because he said the green was making him feel youthful and energetic (yay!), and that the adverse/aggressive stance of the person conflicted with that youthful feeling he felt. I never noticed that before he mentioned it, so that was interesting. I feel that this strong stance would be neat to do with the colour red.

Violet (Purple): Violet was fun! This is my other favorite image. My image is more on the purple side than violet. Strangely enough, the image makes me feel youthful - perhaps because DC Shoes are associated with youth a lot of the time. Although I feel youth from looking at it, it is also very rich in colour which makes me feel grounded along with that vibrant, uplifting feeling of youth. The positioning of the shoes has a youthful feel to it as well. My dad felt a feeling of 'jazz', 'tappy', and youth. He said this while he started dancing around the room!

Red: First and foremost, my red image gives me a feeling of tension. I feel an urge to get up and run, and I most definitely do not feel so mellow as I did when viewing my magenta image (I found this surprising since I always consider red and pink to be so similar). My dad felt a feeling of (quote on quote) "get the hell outta here". He said he felt panic and action.

Similarity Colour Relationship: I love the relationship between red and yellow. They are very powerful together. The red makes me feel tense once again, and the yellow helps to 'lighten up' the image, and give a sense of joy and happiness and lightness. They look great together. My dad felt nostalgic (this is probably because of the vinyl), and said that for him the photo was more about the nostalgia of the vinyl, and that the colours did not really matter so much. So I asked my sister, and she said it made her feel happy and vibrant.

Complimentary Colour Relationship: My complimentary relationship was red and green. Obviously I thought going into shooting it that it would just make me feel like Christmas! Looking at my image I do not feel Christmas though. I actually feel tranquil, but not too tranquil. The green is a fairly light green and takes the heaviness away from the red in the back of the scene. I really like the placement of the colours, and find it would not have such an effective feeling of tranquility if the red were in front. It seems to make sense to have such a heavy colour in the back, and the lighter green upfront in the photo. Red and green really do work well together, and do not always have to be associated with Christmas. My dad felt mellow from the photo, and 'bluesy' (kind of ironic that he felt the blues from green and red, huh?).

All in all, I am going to consider colours much more in my future images, and how they relate to my subject. They will go hand in hand with my knowledge of metaphors, and how to create accuracy in the message I am trying to portray to the viewers of my photos.

LC Murdoch