We move back in time this Sunday morning to what I believe was one of the most brilliant minds in history. An artist who pioneered many things and when I need some inspiration to be creative I read some of his work. Leonardo DaVinci wrote extensively and one of his subject was art. He really took things apart visually and today’s art quote gives us something to think about when shooting and doing post production.
“The color of the object illuminated partakes of the color of that which illuminates it.” Leonardo DaVinci
In spite of the stilted language the information is important to consider while we shoot. What color are the surroundings of our subject? If photographing in an area of lawn or surrounded by trees the prevailing color is green. The sun lights the green and according to Leo’s observation the reflection of the green is what lights our subject. I don’t now about you but every time I see a green subject, unless it was Kermit the Frog, it’s a problem because our subject looks to be ill. “But, I love the background and the park!” I know, I know the location is wonderful. So what should be done for pleasing skin tones? We can overpower the light that is reflected from the green by adding flash on our subject. Clean light equals clean skin tones and because we direct the light with modifiers we still get the nice green color of the grass and trees – And save a lot of time and effort in post production from trying to clean up those skin tones.
Speaking of post production, I am doing a lot of art based images and Mr DaVinci’s writing has alerted me to being careful to render scenes being aware of the reflected colors to add realism to the art pieces. Check some of the work I did with images from France…
