Photographing with intent: Minimalist color when telling a specific visual story

 

 

Last week, Ted Forbes released a video discussing the intent of the photographer. He focused on multiple famous photographers who all utilized the same color film stock, Kodachrome, to create images with vastly different styles. Not only were the images different in terms of composition, use of light and much more, they also varied dramatically in terms of usage of color. In Forbes latest video, he is revisiting photographing with intent, this time discussing color tones and limiting your color palette for artistic purpose.

Utilizing Steve McCurry's famous Afghan girl portrait, Forbes discusses McCurry's use of color and how the composition is supported by a limited and precise color palette. While some images can be powerful even when converted to black and white, other images rely on color to tell their story and create powerful compositions. In the video below, Forbes argues that there are situations, like with McCurry's famous image, that not only require color, but actually require simplified color palettes to tell their story.

(Via Ted Forbes and The Art of Photography)