Color! – A Conversation With Eric Meola – Dec 10 @ 8 pm EST

Wednesday, Dec 10 @ 8pm EST

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Creativity Continues at Santa Fe Workshops with a conversation about Color!
Savor a deep dive with two photographic masters, Eric Meola and John Paul Caponigro.

Our hour of inspiration will begin with a short presentation of images.

Next, Eric and John Paul will share and discuss their insights about color. After hearing their insights about how other artists use color and how they use color, you’ll leave inspired to explore how you use color (even if you’re a black and white photographer).

Finally, we’ll finish with a lively question-and-answer session open to all participants.

Color is such a deep subject, and these artists’ passion for color is so strong, it’s sure to run long.

Join Santa Fe Workshops’ worldwide community of photographers and writers as Creativity Continues.
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Photographer Eric Meola’s new book, BENDING LIGHT: The Moods of Color, showcases his use of light and color throughout his career. In a five-decade career that defines the use of color as art, Meola examines the history of color and redefines it in the medium of photography. In dozens of stories and anecdotes, he recounts his journey using color, its symbolism, and how it affects our moods. “Light and color are my subject as much as the subject itself. They resonate with our moods, reflect our emotions, and define the way we see.”

Eric Meola studied photography at the Newhouse School of Journalism at Syracuse University and graduated with a B.A. in English Literature. Meola’s photographs are included in the archive of the American Society of Media Photographers, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., the International Center of Photography in New York, and the George Eastman Museum. His previous books include Last Places on Earth (GRAPHIS, 2004), Born to Run: The Unseen Photos (Insight Editions, 2006), INDIA: In Word & Image (Welcome Books, 2008), and FIERCE BEAUTY: Storms of the Great Plains (IMAGES Publishing, 2019). He has received numerous awards, including “Advertising Photographer of the Year” in 1986 from the American Society of Media Photographers, a “Power of the Image” George Eastman award in 2014, and, in 2023, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Professional Photographers of America.

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View 12 Great Photographs by Eric Meola

Read 14 Great Quotes By Photographer Eric Meola.

Read our short Q&A

Read our extended conversation.

Discover more by Eric Meola.

 

What In The World Is Color Grading – Why & How To Do It

Color grading can unify images of different subjects shot at different times and locations.

Correction Versus Grading

Many people use color correction and color grading interchangeably, but their intents are quite different, while both are post-production processes and often use the same tools. Color correction is an objective technical process where colors are adjusted to appear natural; color grading is a subjective artistic process where colors are enhanced to evoke time, atmosphere, physical sensations (like temperature), and/or emotions. Correction convinces minds (avoiding personal biases); grading provokes feelings (celebrating personal preferences).

Correct Before You Grade

For some (scientists, journalists, product photographers, and art reproduction), color correction is the first and last step. For others (artists, many fashion and portrait photographers), color correction is a necessary prelude to color grading. Producing a neutral base gets images ready for artistic effects. Clipped highlights and shadows, color casts, and too much or too little saturation can all get in the way of successfully color-grading images. Correction also produces consistency between multiple shots. You won’t need to customize the color grading for different images if they are first color-corrected. This can save a lot of time and confusion if you’re processing many images.

Things To Look For During Color Correction

1    Preserve shadow and highlight detail.

2    Remove color casts. Make neutrals truly neutral.

3    Set saturation neither too low nor too high.

      Monitor memory colors: skin, blue sky, green grass, etc.

Read more on 4 Ways To Achieve Neutrality.

Tools To Create Color Grades With


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How To Enhance The Illusion Of Space With Atmospheric Perspective

As atmosphere builds up, contrast and detail are diminished, while colors grow cooler and less saturated.

Whites are an exception; they get darker and yellower.

Atmospheric perspective can be applied to neutral or black-and-white images using luminosity only.
In the foreground, increase contrast. In the background lighten blacks and darken whites.

Because compositionally, skies are quickly read as separate spaces, they can generally hold more saturation and still seem far away… but don’t overdo it if you want your photographs to be believable.

 

Used in Western art since the Renaissance, the principle of atmospheric perspective can be stated simply. Some colors rise forward, while others fall back. Lighter, warmer, saturated colors, with more contrast, appear closer, and darker, cooler, desaturated colors, with less contrast, appear farther away. You can use atmospheric perspective to control the illusion of three-dimensional depth in your two-dimensional images. When you do this, the scenes you present will become more believable, eye-catching, and compelling.

Adjust Color Selectively

The key to using atmospheric to enhance your images is to adjust color selectively.


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The 25 Most Beautiful Black-And-White Movies

Wings Of Desire, Beauty And The Beast, Embrace Of The Serpent, Dead Man, Seven Samurai, The Seventh Seal, The Passion Of Joan Of Arc …

We’ve all got our favorite black-and-white films. Any top 10 or 25 list will surely leave some of our favorites out and start a debate – that’s well worth having. Doing the hard work of picking our tops and supporting our choices helps us be clearer about what we most appreciate, inspiring ideas for how we might incorporate those qualities in our own images and be better able to celebrate it with others. Preparing for this task is a pure pleasure. Consider immersing yourself in the wonderful world of black and white with classic movies.

Here are 5 lists of the most beautiful black-and-white movies. Enjoy!

Taste Of Cinema – The 25 Most Visually Stunning Black-and-White Movies of All Time

List Challenges – The 25 Most Visually Stunning Black-And-White Movies of All Time

IMDB – Most Beautiful Black And White Films (Post 1965)

Listal – The Most Beautiful Black And White Films

New York Film Academy – The Best Black & White Films In Cinematography

What are your favorite black-and-white movies?
Leave your recommendations in the comments.

Find more Color Theory inspiration from the movies here.
Explore my Black & White resources here.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.

Understanding Wes Anderson’s Unforgettable Color Palettes In 10 Movies

Color Theory and Wes Anderson’s Style — Sad Characters in a Colorful World

Few directors use color as masterfully and idiosyncratically as Wes Anderson. In each movie and scene of individual movies, color sets the mood and tells you about the plot and character. Though he clearly understands and uses classic color theory, his use of color transcends aesthetic formulas and encodes content with complexity and nuance.

Watching his movies is both an education and an inspiration.

Read a detailed analysis of 10 movies here.
The Wes Anderson Color Palette: Bright Colors Meet Dark Subjects

How To Take Accidentally Wes Anderson Photos

Follow Wes Anderson on Instagram here.

Follow accidentallywesanderson on Instagram here.

Find more Color Theory inspiration from the movies here.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.

How To Decode Color In Christopher Nolan’s Amazing Movie Inception

Consider how you can use color as a code to move viewers between images and/or sets of images. Christopher Nolan’s masterful use of color in his movie Inception will inspire you to new heights.

Inception moves between five levels of reality; waking, three levels of dream, and limbo, a plane of infinite subconscious that can be entered by traveling through the deepest dream level. The differences between each dream level’s color palette help viewers distinguish where characters are as they move between layers. Color becomes more than pleasing; it becomes content, a code to be decoded.

In the highest waking and lowest dreaming layers there is no consistent color palette; they have not been designed by the dream architect Ariadne. The three dream layers that have been designed have consistent palettes.

Dream layer one’s rainy exteriors are dominated by grays, dark blues, and blacks.

Dream layer two’s urban interiors are composed of warm oranges and browns.

Dream layer three’s snowy exteriors are rendered with bright whites and grays.

Understanding the use of color in Inception helps viewers orient and better understand this complex movie.

How many ways could you apply this principle in your images?

Find more Color Theory inspiration from the movies here.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.

How To Use Lightroom & Camera Raw’s Color Tool

“In this video we’ll look at a little-known/used tool with the selective adjustments in Lightroom and Photoshop Camera Raw. It’s the Color tool and we’ll really dive in to how it’s different than just the normal white balance settings for changing or adding color to your photos.”

Watch more from Matt Kloskowski here.
Learn more with my Color Adjustment resources.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.

How Classic Movies Use Color To Tell Compelling Stories

Whether in painting, photography, or motion pictures, color theory is one of the most important elements in art theory.  Learn what colors mean and why and investigate the power of colour as this video answers the question “How can color tell a story?”

Find more Color Theory inspiration from the movies here.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.

11 Movies That Use Day For Night Plus An Inside Look At Nope’s Brilliance

“Day for night” is a set of cinematic techniques used to simulate the appearance of night while filming during the day. It’s often used when it’s too difficult or expensive to shoot at night, but it’s sometimes selected deliberately because it offers special image qualities. It’s not just technique, it’s also an aesthetic.

The same techniques cinematographers employ can be used for still images. If you’re called to explore these unique palettes, you’ll find lots of inspiration from the movies.

Some of the best examples of movies that use day for night include …

Dune 1 & 2
Nope
Tenet
Dunkirk
Interstellar
Mad Max: Fury Road
Pan’s Labyrinth
Castaway
Casablanca
Lawrence Of Arabia
Passion In The Desert

Stay tuned for details on how you too can use day for night techniques.

Find more Color Theory inspiration from the movies here.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.