I truly believe that an artist could spend a lifetime exploring color and the results of color mixing, there are just so many possibilities and results. Color mixing is something beginners often shy away from. Don’t, rather learn the few fundamentals, embrace the challenge and get mixing. At worst you’ll produce mud colors; if you don’t want to waste the paint by throwing it away, use it with some white to do a tonal exercise, or underpainting. Here are some tips to help you with color mixing that I wish I’d known far earlier than I did.

• Use mixtures rather than colors straight from the tube for more interesting color. For example, mix blue and yellow to make green or add other colors to tube green to modify the color.

• Most color-mixing problems come from overmixing. Mix very lightly on the palette or directly on the support to prevent this, and once the color is down, leave it alone.
• Some books tell you to use no more than three colors in a mixture, but the problem isn’t usually concerned with the number of colors; it’s a matter of which colors you use. Paint characteristics and your choices of colors determine how they will mix. Refer to the article on Split-Primary Color Mixing to learn how to mix clean, bright color every time.
• Complements (opposites on the color wheel) create color vibrations and enhance each other when placed side by side. When mixed, they neutralize each other.
• To lower the intensity of a color, mix it with its complement or Burnt Sienna rather than black, gray or sepia. These colors tend to deaden mixtures.
• For high-intensity mixtures avoid the third primary. The third primary is the complement of the mixture of any two other primaries and will lower the intensity of this mixture. For example, you know that red and blue make violet; however, a warm red (which has yellow in it) makes a dull, low-intensity violet when mixed with blue, because yellow is the complement of violet.

History

Photography is an expansive art form that includes more than just portraiture, landscape or glamor photography. Both professional and amateur photographers may favor specific types of photography over others. While a professional photographer may work in photojournalism, an amateur may be particularly interested in macro-photography. Read on to learn more about the various types of photography.

Equipment

1) Use a 35mm single lens reflex (SLR) camera or a digital 4-megapixel or higher camera, manual or automatic with manual override and 50-55mm lens or zoom lens. Read your instructions!

2) Use a sturdy tripod with tilt and rotation and a cable release or self-timer to reduce risk of camera shake.

3) Shoot indoors with two 500-watt photo flood lamps (3200K) mounted in reflectors.

4) For slides, I use 3200K tungsten Ektachrome Professional films, ISO 100, which can be processed in 3 hours. If I need to re-shoot, I can often do it the same day. For prints indoors with lights, I use an 80A conversion filter and ISO 200-400 film. For digital I set the white balance for tungsten lighting.

Procedures:

1)Fasten art to a flat, black background with double-stick tape, tacks or use a black mat. Place on the wall or on an easel. The art must be parallel to the camera lens, the center of the lens pointing at the center of the art. Use a bubble level to be sure camera and art are level. Tape a gray/color scale next to the art if your slides are for reproduction.

2)Lamps should be 4-5 feet away from the art, behind the camera at 45 degree angle on each side and at the same height as the camera. Check to be sure there are no hot spots, shadows or shine reflecting off the art. (An artist on the Internet says he places plastic wrap over the painting so he can check for hot spots. He removes it before shooting his slides.) The room should be completely dark when you shoot. Cover the windows and turn out the lights. For textured work like collage try raking the light, using just one light from the side and adjusting the exposure accordingly.

3) Fill the viewfinder or LCD (digital) with the IMAGE ONLY, centered and absolutely square to the sides, top and bottom. Move the camera or zoom lens, not the art.

4) Focus carefully in the center of the art.

5) Take a meter reading using an 18% gray card or a large piece of 18% gray mat board. Set the f-stop at f8-f16 and adjust the speed according to the instructions with your camera to get the best exposure. When you shoot a picture, take three exposures (bracket exposures), one at the setting, one a half-stop above and one a half-stop below. Take three shots at each exposure and you should have 3-6 good slides to choose from. Record the settings for each slide as you take them, so you can tell which ones work best. In my experience with my equipment, watercolors or light-value artwork need to be slightly overexposed for better color saturation.

6) The best combination for me is a slow speed setting (1/8, 1/15, 1/30 sec.) with a high f/stop (f11 or f16) for color saturation and sharp image. Since my digital camera has only an f8 stop, I can’t photograph at such a low speed.

7) Check camera batteries and make sure ISO setting matches film. If your digital has ISO settings, use a lower setting for less &noise&. Load your film or your media card.

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INTRODUCTION

An eye-catching novel digital photographic artform called Photomosaics[TM] was born in 1996 by Robert Silvers, then a 26 year-old student at MIT who founded Runaway Technology in 1998, a commercial enterprise providing patent protection for his process, proprietary software and the source of stock and assignment images for sale. He was inspired by Ken Knowlton, a gifted pioneer artist who explored computer creation of mosaic-like images. Silvers was able to refine the innovation by drafting an algorithm for a supercomputer to access extensive photographic archives.

Merriam-Webster’s College Dictionary, 10th Edition, 1997, defines the word photomosaic, vintage 1942, as “a photographic mosaic; especially one composed of aerial or orbital photographs.” The closest germane word was photomontage, vintage 1931, describing a montage using photographic images. Going further, montage describes the “process of making a composite picture by bringing together into a single composition a number of different pictures or parts of pictures and arranging these … so they form a blended whole while remaining distinct.” But, the word mosaic is apropos and describes “the process of making pictures … by inlaying small bits … in mortar.”

PHOTOMOSAIC ARTISTRY

DTG defines photo mosaics as photographic images or pictures made up of many, usually hundreds, of smaller photographic images. Viewed very closely, the small tile images can be recognized as individual photos, but at a distance, the composite of these images make up an entirely different image.

This exciting branch of art has been going on for quite some time now and has gained a wide interest from all over the world. The meaning of these artworks has a profound effect on anyone who sees it. It can be a powerful medium of expression that conveys strong emotions. I myself was very moved upon seeing a photo mosaic of US president George Bush made up of all the servicemen that have died in Iraq. Just imagine the many soldiers making up that picture and you’ll see why it brought out a lot of emotions for all who’ve seen it.

This type of art is a very effective tool to convey different types of meaning whatever the artist likes. It allows you to make the viewer make connections and this connections will serve as the medium where you communicate to them whatever it is that you want them to know.

PRINCIPLES that are essential to create good photo mosaics:

1)The large image MUST look good without too much jaggedness or color distortion. To achieve this use more and smaller tiles, use duplicates, modify the tile images or add another photo collection.

(2) The small tile images should be sufficiently large to view comfortably in the renderings final form. If this is a display on a computer monitor or a 8×10 print, you will need to use as few tiles as possible and still satisfy rule(1). If it is a poster size printout you can get by with over a thousand tiles.

(3) If duplicate use of the small tiles is needed, they must not be placed near to each other.

(4) If the small tile images need to be modified to achieve 1-3, it should be as little as possible.

(5) The target image and the small tile pictures should as much as possible have some coherent theme or connection.