Simultaneous Contrast

Simultaneous Contrast

This colour theory examines the interaction between one particular hue, and a variety of other hues. As Itten says in 'The Elements of Colour' - "Simultaneous contrast results from the fact that for any given colour the eye simultaneously requires the complimentary colour". Fundamentally, this effect occurs in the brain and is as a result of the eye correcting the non-complementary colour to a complementary colour, this means it cannot be photographed. This effect only occurs when viewing two colours which aren't complementary.

When it comes to producing this effect in practise, I decided to use a real life object and take photographs. The problems with this is that when not producing the colours on a computer, it's hard to achieve the exact hues, and also unless using a completely flat coloured surface, an everyday object is not simply one hue but a multitude of them. Even if using a flat coloured surface, factors like lighting and shadows could mean that it displays a gradient of tints and shades. Despite the complications, I still wanted to use this method because even though taking photos of an object may not produce a perfect example of simultaneous contrast, when placing it in a real word setting, it becomes more believable and impressive that it is occurring, as opposed to on a computer screen or digital file.

The colour I was assigned was Pantone 15-0343 or 'Greenery' which as it turns out was the Pantone 2017 colour of the year. Greenery is a light, subtle and warm hue of green, intended to evoke images of nature. - "Greenery is a fresh and zesty yellow-green shade that evokes the first days of spring when nature’s greens revive, restore and renew". To encapsulate this colour in a photo, I decided it was only fitting to use something leafy and green, so I used an iceberg lettuce. As I mentioned before, it's difficult to find an everyday object that is solely one hue and beyond that, it's even harder to find one which is an exact hue, so to avoid bringing my greenery swatch to Tesco and comparing it to every single iceberg lettuce, I decided that although a lettuce will give a variety of tints and shades, greenery or a hue very close to it will be on there somewhere, and the general average of its hues was close enough.

When taking my photos there were a few practical considerations I needed to take into account. I decided to use different coloured lighting to simulate the different background colours, so I had to set up a white background in order not to influence the colour in the shot. Also I needed to consider the lighting on the foreground; this needed to be a white light directed at the front of the lettuce in order to show an unaltered image of its colour in comparison to the background light.

Ultimately upon reviewing the images, although the nature of this visual investigation dictated some levels of inaccuracy, I think the photos do show simultaneous contrast and also a bit of complementary contrast to some extent, which is that bit more effective having been achieved practically.