5 TIPS FOR CAPTIVATING COLOUR PHOTOS
Shooting in colour can be incredibly powerful, and personally nothing can get my heart racing than a well-composed photograph, where the colour just jumps out of the photo. East London being where I lay most of my routes, is going to be my model in showing you some of my tips for getting good colour photographs, and pass on some of the simple rules, I have been taught along the way and live by every day in my work.
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CONTRAST
I say this to everyone who ask me: digital cameras love contrast. There's such beauty in a pastel-coloured photograph for sure, but contrast instantly and clearly communicates what we're looking at and makes it easy for the viewer to understand. Without over-doing it, adding contrast will brighten the colours making it feel real and inviting!
PLAY WITH ANGLES
Okay, so I know how tempting it is to just do the straight-on approach, but leaving your comfort zone and trying some different angles, you just might discover some pretty cool results, making you see your motive in a different way and get that million dollar shot! Even with below, where I chose to combine the word scary with two different angles - the first giving us an idea of the size with the woman at the end of it, and standing right in front of the Y for the next shot. I have found, that having a flip out screen can make it a lot easier to play around with this, but otherwise the jump-stretch-squeeze together with some radical yoga-poses is a way to discover some new angles.
LIGHT IS EVERYTHING
Now, I'm sure if you've read a few of the guides out there, you will have heard this one before. But it's only because it is! Perfect lighting will take the mundane to the magnificent, and depending on the result you want, you'll have to run on different sides of the sun. Overcast weather with just a bit of sun peaking through, is often the best for daylight as harsh sunlight erases the details in the lighter colours. You might already have heard of the golden hour, and this is the queen of all light. When the sun has a low angle to where you are, which would be early in the morning and just before the sun sets, the sun creates this golden light. This is the cherry on top, so if you're going for breathtaking, this is when to get your camera out!
EQUIPMENT
Although your eyes is the most important factor for good shots, a good camera and good lenses will elevate the photographs you take. The photos I have taken here are all done with my Olympus PEN EPL-7 shown below, playing around with different lenses. The EPL-7 provides a lot of flexibility with the earlier mentioned flip-out screen (which has resulted in a selfie, or a gazillion on instagram, whoops), the remote shooting and the fact that you have creative freedom in terms of settings and a set of interchangeable lenses to choose from. Most of the photos in this post were taken with the 45mm f1:1.8 lens, which is brilliant for market shots and portraits being able to set the aperture low. Another goodie is the 12mm f1:2.0 wide angle lens which I have already created several outfit posts with (check this one for an example) - fantastic for those in-city shots full of architecture!
COLOUR CODES
If you're showcasing your photographs, the way you put your photographs together can help strengthen the narrative. Now in blogging, this type of editing process is put in to every post and should be done with a sense of care to get the most exciting results. Above, there was a clear link between the two photos, both having green strongly represented and both having the characteristic yellow bricks (oh London, you!).
Last but not least, Olympus did this little video of me, which I found quite cute - running around doing shots with my camera! I hope you found this mini guide useful, photography is all about the fun you have while doing it - experiment, pull faces, read the manual (!) and see what works for you.
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SARAH MIKAELA
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Post created as a part of my ambassadorship with Olympus PEN Generation
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SARAH MIKAELA
instagram | facebook | twitter
Post created as a part of my ambassadorship with Olympus PEN Generation
