Color in Macro Photography - A Livestream Series

We are already into the second week of December and there is still a great deal of work to be wrapped up before I will be ready to dive into 2025. This may seem like an arbitrary deadline - I do not have a publisher breathing down my neck, and I am the one who plans my schedule - but the contents of my calendar are not nearly as fungible as they may seem at first glance. Much of my next twelve months is already sketched out by the last quarter of the current year, with major punctuation points already set in stone. In 2025 I will be attending an important photographic conference in Florida where I will be speaking on two separate days of the convention, in the summer I will be headed to the UK for my brother’s birthday celebrations and to host the second annual AWP Summer Picnic in the Scottish Borders, and I anticipate a carefully planned move to be concluded before the  first snowfall of 2025. Overlay a number of longer-term planned projects onto this minefield of obstacles and the importance of a fairly accurate calendar becomes apparent.

Which brings me back to the limited remainder of 2024 and the projects I would like to have wrapped up  before the end of the first week of January. These include the judging and results video from our largest and most exciting macro photography competition yet, a detailed review of the new Shibuya infinity corrected microscope objectives, and the completion of a rather ambitious series of livestream presentations on the subject of color in macro photography. A series that kicks off tomorrow with Part I, “What is Color and Why Does It Matter”. Your link is here - https://youtube.com/live/KHtzljz6ruI?feature=share.  I had initially planned to cover color in a series of five chapters, but added a sixth, introductory chapter after giving a lot of thought to how I would answer that seemingly basic question. The more I thought about it, the more important the question seemed and the less clear it became how I should answer it. I expanded the question into two specific thought experiments, hoping that this would bring clarity - it did, but only after considerable thought and pages of note-taking - and these are the two questions I am going to address in our first livestream of the week, Macro Talk, at 8PM on Tuesday. The questions I will try to answer in setting the stage for an in-depth series of conversations on color in macro photography are as follows…

1) How would you describe the experience of seeing color to a person who had been blind since birth?

2) How would you explain the phenomenon of color to a scientist from an alien race, one that interacts with a completely different domain of the electromagnetic spectrum?

How would you answer these questions? They are both getting at very different concepts, both of which are extremely important to our understanding and use of color in macro photography. In the first question we are being asked to repackage our experience of color in a way that forces us to think in very concrete terms about how we use color as a crucial element in the visual language of imagery. What do colors mean in a photograph, how do we choose them, manipulate them, or ensure their accuracy? How do different colors stimulate different parts of our visual cortex, and how can we harness that largely subliminal power to augment the visual experience of those looking at our photography? The second question demands a more rigorous answer that would satisfy an analytical mind - it must include an overview of the electromagnetic spectrum as a whole and a more focused look at the part of the spectrum that we are equipped to sense. By understanding color as a property of visible light and as a physical phenomenon that follows a very precise set of laws and that we interact with in a very predictable way, we can begin to understand what lies at the heart of the human perception of color, what drives the functional role of color, and ultimately how that informs the subjective experience of color in our photography.

I think that these two questions will be a valuable jumping-off place for the discussions to follow, and I think you will get more out of this introductory livestream if you know what is coming up in the remaining chapters of this series. The second chapter, which I plan to discuss on Thursday’s Macro Talk Too Livestream (2PM central time, 12/12/24) is “Mastering Color in Camera”, the objective of which will be to explain the tools and concepts most useful to effectively using color during image capture. The link to this discussion is here - https://youtube.com/live/djgjEjUQiKc?feature=share.  In Thursday’s stream I will discuss the importance of choosing the best light source for color rendition, as well as recognizing and leveraging the color temperature with in a scene. I will also explain the importance of your camera settings, and will offer specific direction on selecting auto or custom white balance, utilizing built in camera color profiles, and the file types that work best for color fidelity. I will also cover the use of filters to enhance color, and touch on polarization and its effect on color saturation.

In Chapter 3, linked here - https://youtube.com/live/yhPRixsIhSs?feature=share -  I will focus on the use of color as a design feature, and will  focus on color as an element of composition and aesthetics. In this stream I will  touch on the psychology of color, explaining the emotional and symbolic connotations of various colors and combinations of colors. I will summarize how the power of color can be used to set the mood or advance the storytelling  in our images. We will look at the color wheel and see how complementary, analogous, and triadic color schemes can be used to achieve balance and harmony (or chaos and stress) in our images. I’ll cover practical applications for these theories, discussing background selection, depth of field and enhancement of color focus, and give some practical tips of avoiding color clashes in nature.

Chapter 4 (link - https://youtube.com/live/XR6ePF-Arok?feature=share) will be dedicated to the Color Workflow and will look closely at color calibration and post processing. The purpose of this stream will be to arm you with the tools to ensure accurate color representation in your work. We will discuss why calibration matters and the various tools available for calibrating monitors, color profiles and how to use them wisely, and how we can assign and convert profiles in Lightroom and Photoshop. In considering g post-processing we will talk about adjusting white balance and tone in our editing software, using masks to enhance color selectively using HSL and masks, and look closely at the problems associated with maintaining color fidelity and managing color noise at high magnifications.

Chapter 5 (link - https://youtube.com/live/VLat3tU7NKc?feature=share) will tackle the potentially complicated and confusing task of bringing colors to life when moving from the screen to the printer. In other words, we will learn about the best ways to prepare images for printing to ensure that colors are accurate and vibrant. We will discuss soft proofing, and how to preview colors, we’ll learn how to match printer and paper profiles with our editing profiles, choosing the right paper by understanding their effect on color rendering, and touch on mediums like acrylic and metal for color reproduction. If time permits I want to talk about how we manage color shifts in print outputs and give some practical guidance on how to work with professional labs, or calibrate your own home printer. As a bonus I will also be giving you my key pointers on choosing the best presentation option for your work, including tips on framing, lighting, and display hardware.

The final chapter in the series will be “Advanced Color Techniques in Macro Photography” and it will focus on the technical and creative approaches that will elevate your work through careful color manipulation and management. The link is - https://youtube.com/live/Oo3hZiEU3ek?feature=share - Topics will include creative color grading through the use of LUTs, advanced fine-tuned color control with the HSL adjustment panel, and simulation of film types with presets and profiles. I will also introduce the use the monochromatic and limited color palettes, touch on unconventional methods like infrared and ultraviolet photography, and talk about the use of gels for creative enhancement. We will wrap things up by looking at multi-display color management (how to achieve consistency across monitors, tablets and projectors), how to prepare images for the web, and how to create slideshow and videos, animations and transitions to emphasize color changes in a sequence.

What have I missed? Can we get through all of this material before the end of the year? I will certainly try, but reserve the right to release some of this material in the form of a traditional video if circumstances (like the arrival of the Shibuya objectives) force  any last-minute reprogramming. I am really looking forward to this series and have been working on it for some time. A special “Thank you!” To my Patreon supporters for gently nudging me to get this series done as a priority.

Lest I forget, there are a couple of important reminders I need to add to this post:

1) Don’t forget this weekend is AfterStack #12, hosted by me and led by Bud Perrott, this coming Saturday, 12/14/24, at 10AM. This is an open discussion forum, held on a Zoom meeting platform and accessible only through this invitation -

Allan Walls is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Allan Walls’ AfterStack with Bud Perrott - Episode 12

Time: Dec 14, 2024 10:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6916802815?pwd=TS9tZi9ZL1NXeVUvOUF4eTg5YjdlZz09&omn=84390174328

Meeting ID: 691 680 2815

Passcode: 678122

2) This week I will be adding a second post over on my Patreon page - www.Patreon.com/allanwallsphotography - which will contain a link to last Saturday’s excellent Pzoom event and will contain a detailed answer to the question that was asked during that meeting - “What are your current recommendations for lighting in field macro photography” (paraphrased). The question was actually a request for me to list the most relevant and accurate pieces of content addressing my approach to lighting in field macro, but this turned out to be a deceptively difficult task as it required I go back and look at many hours of content (hundreds of hours, as it happens), going though each to find the  most useful and up-to-date information to pass on. While the heart was willing, the flesh was not equal to the task and I instead decided to put my most current recommendations into the article you will see over on my Patreon Page. It is my hope that as I begin to assimilate all the information accumulated from the AWP Essentials Project, questions like these will become less onerous, but in the meantime I am left with no real alternative - there are simply not enough hours in the day for me to deliver a simple answer to this simple question. But hopefully, this answer will give you the information you need until then.

3) My next announcement for this post concerns the fast approaching Christmas holiday and my programming changes for that week. I am going to be spending the week of Christmas with my children in the great state of Tennessee, on a beautiful but secluded piece of farmland, as yet unsullied by new-fangled luxuries like broadband internet, WiFi, or upload speeds in excess of one megabyte every hour. In querying the owner of the rental property where I will be staying, specifically to ask if the installed internet access might support a livestream, he said that the internet was the best satellite service that was available when it was installed. This is similar to asking about the quality of food on your planned trans-Atlantic cruise and being told that it is “superior, equal to the best food available on the Mayflower” - which consisted mostly of a 50:50 mix of hardtack and maggots, if memory serves. Further questioning on the subject failed to provide any more concrete data, and I am assuming that my ability to deliver a livestream on either Christmas Eve or on Boxing Day (12/24/24 or 12/26/24) is highly improbable. I have decided, therefore, to consider this week of Christmas a total write-off, and will not be hosting a Macro Talk or a Macro Talk Too during that week. I will attempt to make up for it by being especially charming and witty during the streams that fall before and after that week, only returning to my normal grumpy demeanor in January of 2025. My apologies to anyone counting on having my company on these days. I do plan to be back in the saddle for AfterStack #13, on December 28th at 10AM.

4) But, not wanting to close on a negative note, I have decided to make up for lost time the following week. I will be expanding Macro Talk on the last day of 2024 to a 2-hour, End of the Year special. During the first hour I will be wrapping up the “Color in Macro Photography” series, and after that I will just be hanging out, showing pictures, telling jokes, and talking about whatever you want, for as long as you want to hang out. I hope you can drop by and say hi - 12/31/24 at 8PM until closing time - don’t miss it!

A weird but wonderful crystal from my collection

OK Folks - that is it for this week. Hope to see you in one of this weeks streams!

Allan