Another day at the Exhibition

Spent my second day at the RPS eastern Region Exhibition held in Mundesley. Fairly quiet day so had plenty of time to view the images. This time I looked for the use of colour applying as far as possible the lessons learned from the Colour part of the Course.

Out of the 150+ images there was a number of monochrome pictures that used tonal differences to convey texture, structure and depth within the image. For most of the other prints colour was almost incidental and it was not apparent that there had been any deliberate use of colour and certainly no evidence of 'balancing' colour ratios. The overall impression was of muted colours with only a small number of the images using strong colours.

Where strong colour was used it was for dramatic effect and almost surreal. Saturation of colours using Photoshop was evident in most of such images. In one part of the exhibition all images had been taken on the same day so any unusual colouring rather stood out although given the subject matter (an atomic weapons test area) it was very effective.

What conclusions did I draw from this small survey.  It is the subject matter that persuades us that a photograph is worth taking and if there is any consideration about the colours within the frame it is probably at a sub-concious level (obviously there are exceptions such as sunsets).  Most photographers seem more concerned about colour casts (and how to get rid of them)  caused by the existing light than the actual colour structure of the overall image.

It was noticeable that there was a higher proportion of monochrome images than I remember from previous years and I wonder if this is because there is a feeling amongst experienced photographers that colour in some way detracts from the purity of the image. This is pure speculation on my part but I feel that there is an element of truth.