Tony Sweet: Create for Color

Henri Matisse said, “Seek the strongest color effect possible...the content is of no importance.” I don’t know if I agree totally with the content part, but I can tell you that much of my photography is more about color impact than subject. Maybe that’s because when you’re in the business of selling prints and stock photos, you quickly find that colorful scenes are generally the strongest sellers.

And maybe it’s because I kind of like it that way.

I began my journey in photography with black and white. As a jazz musician and a photographer, black and white lent itself to interpreting the somber, moody feel of that venue. And frankly, shooting, processing and printing black and white was the easiest thing to do. When I became a nature and outdoor photographer, the colors I found in nature were irresistible, and I was also drawn to the blending and mixing of colors. By that I mean the colors captured by a compositional choice; colors blended by using software; the mixing of warm and cool tonalities; and the mixing of color opposites, like red and green or blue and yellow. I found that these methods were ways of maximizing color in an image, and I realized I could create an image specifically to maximize color.

For instance...

Badlands. I made this image at sunrise, and I chose that time to maximize the warm color. I used a polarizing filter to darken the sky and bring out the wispy white clouds. Those clouds were critical; I probably wouldn’t have taken the picture if there’d been a clear sky.

Spring. For this photo I boosted the impact of the tree’s color by using Nik Software’s Color Efex Pro plug-in filters. I used a few other plug-ins to give the photograph a painterly effect, which made the color more prominent and brought out the feeling I had when I viewed the scene. This image is in keeping with Matisse’s dictum; it’s truly about color effect.

Glow. You can see this scene, and this effect, for a few weeks each April at Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains. The sun comes up at just the right angle to warm up (and light up) the trees in the back while the front trees remain in shade. The light changes rapidly, so I was on the spot before sunrise to capture all the warm-cool color combinations. Later I used Nik’s Glamour Glow filter and dialed back the opacity to create the image’s soft glow.

Sky Blue Sky. This is one of the easiest ways to add color punch to your subject, and it works best with translucent subjects like the dogwood. The strong backlighting on the tree evened out the exposure with the deep blue sky. I waited until a small patch of thin clouds moved into the image, giving me an additional color element.

Trunk. Every so often the scene right in front of you has an incredible color palette, and all you have to do is compose to maximize that color in the picture space. All that I needed for this photograph was to have my eyes open to the opportunity.

Visit Tony’s website, www.tonysweet.com, to view a collection of his images, learn about upcoming workshops and keep up with his Visual Artistry blog.