Colour and light

This well-hidden corner in the old town of Cuitedella in Menorca must have been photographed countless times by different groups of my students during the photography holidays I run on the island. I just can't see how a photographer could possibly walk past this place without raising a camera. It positively demands your attention because of those wonderful colours.

 

However, it is never easy to photograph. The first problem is lack of space; you just cannot get back far enough. This tiny little square is very small indeed, and even with a wide angle lens equivalent to 24mm, it is difficult to include as much in the composition as you would like. Use a lens any wider and the distortions completely ruin the atmosphere of the scene. The answer to this, of course, is to decide which particular elements of the scene you find most interesting, and concentrate on those. In other words, careful cropping in the viewfinder.

 

Then there is the difficulty of parked motor scooters and bicycles. On occasions these can add to the interest, but this very much depends on the type and visual appeal of the bikes that are parked there some are more interesting to look at than others.

 

The last problem is the light this photograph was taken around midday with the sun very high so that it shines down into the narrow square, which is surrounded by houses in a narrow back street. The downside of this type of light is the strong shadows and high contrast. But it does have the advantage of bringing texture to the wall, and addng shadow patterns across the cobles.

 

I like this subject best of all on a sunny day when the sun does not shine directly down on it in the morning or afternoon. Then it is very bright, but soft, emphasising the reds in the wall, and the green of the leaves and the wooden bench. You need to adjust you White Balance (WB) in these conditions using Cloudy, Shade or Custom settings.

 

Blue, red and green is a powerful colour combination at the best of times, and when those colours are combined with simple outline shapes the tree, archway and the bench. An interesting image should result.

How to add colourful foregrounds

It's tough job, but someone has to do it - I have a group of photographers with me in Menorca at the moment and what a lively bunch they are. All levels of experience, but all dead keen.

Today we’ve been out on the island visiting a farm – not a tourist in sight – before taking a walk around the interesting little town of Mercadel. There’s a white-painted church there and I have often photographed it before. But in front of the church used to be some cactus which could be used as a really dramatic foreground. Someone has ‘improved’ things by cutting down these cactus and replacing them with a hideous concrete path with lights that look like small dustbins. Without a good foreground the church appears very plain and uninteresting from the outside.

Not to be beaten, I simple found a bunch of wild poppies – they are weeds here – cut a few off and held them in front of the camera. The idea being to give great splodges of red colour with the white church in the background. I thought the combination of bright red, white and blue might make a colourful shot. It did, and I was quite pleased with the results.

A travel photographer might not always find a perfect foreground for a photograph of a well-known building or scene - sometime there may be no foreground at all. So this is a really old and well-proven trick to bring vitality to your pictures on these occasions.

My group of snappers saw the results of this simple technique and, of course, they all wanted to try for themselves.

The top picture shows my original photograph. You really don’t need to bother about depth of field with this type of shot. Just splash the colour across your picture in the same way a painter would use a large brush. The flowers do not need to be sharp or in focus.

The centre photograph shows Ande and Cathy helping each other achieve a similar result.

The lower photograph shows Peter going solo with the same technique.

How to photograph abstracts - part 2

Pablo Picasso, arguably the greatest abstract painter of all time, spent years learning the craft of fine draughtsmanship before he created his unique abstract art. The moral of the story?... learn the rules before you go and break 'em

So here are just ten practical ways to get more from abstract photography...

Practical camera skills will lead to better abstract photographs.

Look more closely at everyday subjects.

Look for strong colour, lines, shapes and textures.

Shadows can be included to create abstract shapes.

Place your rectangle around the most interesting part of the subject.

Try to exclude any obviously recognisable elements.

Create visual puzzles to make your viewer think.

Don't always tilt your camera at an angle this is a hackneyed, overused idea.

Look closely at the natural world to see beautiful abstracts.

Think about presenting a finished set of abstract photographs as a montage.

Photograph above:

So what is it? This type of puzzling photograph doesn't actually need and answer. For me it is enough to enjoy the diagonal bands of colour and the shapes created by the shadows. If you really want to know, it is a picture of upturned canoes