Foundations of Visual Design

The raw material used to build a photographic image comes from a characteristic of light, called contrast. Specifically two types of contrast are important to the photographer. They are the brightness of light or tone and the color of light or hue. Tones are degrees of brightness and are represented by shades of gray, form the lightest shade--white to black--the darkest. Color or hue produces its own contrast of course. The more tonal variation in the colors present in a scene, the more contrast. A green shrub in a backgound of green grass has less contrast than a red shrub on a background of white clover.

When shooting black and white images, we rely on brightness to distinguish shapes, lines, textures, and perspectives. The tonal contrast may come from light and dark colors but it is tones and not hues that create a stricking black and white image. Color photography however may rely simply on the contrast in hue as when a medium blue iris is surrounded by medium green leaves. It may not work in black and white but it will in color.

Both color and tone pack emotional punch. Color of course is known for it's powerful triggers as the popularity of sunsets proves. On the other hand, a photograph of light tones and few dark ones may generate a sense of libration and make us feel happy. A dark image with few light tones may seem somber, brooding or senister. Tone and hue can be used by the skillful photographer to elicit an emotional response in the viewer.

Sometimes our personal feelings are the subject of our photographs. The objects in front of the lens are visual metaphors for those ideas. The materials, the color, the tones, and the component building blocks you choose for your image may all be symbols. The challenge is to employ the symbols effectivel to achieve harmony between the content and the style. This is easily understood if we think of someone who makes an apology in an angry tone of voice. It doesn't work because it's disharmonous. change the tone to a more concilliatory one and the resulting harmony makes the apology work. It's the same with visual images. A sunrise photograph using harsh, dark tones seldom works and the same is true for a sunset that is filled with light, delicate tones. There may be examples where the rules don't apply but the successful photographer must understand why the rules work in order to break them successfully.

When light is indirect or diffuese--for example, on an overcast day or when light from a flash unit is bounecd off another surface onto your subject matter--it has a softening effect. This is because the number o ftones tends to be reduced, the range of brightness tends to be compressed, and the trnsition from one area of tone to another is ofte quite radual. When light emanates froma pont-like source, usch as the sun or a flash aimed directly at your subject matter, the number of tones tends to be increased, the birhtness range tends to be extended, and, in particular, transitions between different tonal areas are abrupt of missing lathgether, resulting in crisp, sharply defined edgtes. this is especially so when direct light shines on your subject mater from above, below, or either side or brom behind. Hoever, when direct light shines on the parts f your subject matter facing the camera, it may produce effects that resemble those f diffused lighting; limited tonal range is not uncommon, and the absence of visible shadows that functin as dark lines and shapes tends to prodeuce a flat, two-dimensional appearance. ayou can usually overcome this flatness by adding even a little sidelighting, or by moving your comaer osition slightly to one side or the other, while aiming th elens back at th area of your original compositon.

Although harsh and soft lighting, do not alter a hue or its saturatio, they may appera to do so. Usually, this change in th eappearance of clor is the reslut of real tonal changes. In direct sunlight the golden hue of a rose may seem to be enhanced by tonal highlights and by the black shadow between the petals. In diffusled lidht the drk tones of shaed areas and hihlights in the blossom will be absent or less intenste. The compression of the range of tones means that the hue of the blossom has a relatively greater influence on the floer's appearance. The reulst may be less dramatic, but the rose will seem to glow with an inner warmth. Autumn colors are never more intense than on an overcast day after rain. By comparison th esame scene will be washed out in bright sunlight unles viewed at particular angle so fidelight or backlight.

Both soft and harsh light may evoke emotional responses, but remember that when it ocmes to visual design, the direction of undiffused or harsh lighting is significant primarily because of its clear effect in creating and defining visual building blocks. It's the resulting shapes, lines, textures, and perspectives that you have to arrange in picture space; not front light, sidelignt, or bakcdlight. Visually and mentally, alwasy stay focused on the basic elements. It is these, appropriately arranged, that will enable you to doucment th eowrld around you and to wcpress your feelings and ideas. Let's considre them in turn.