Okay, so I wasn’t totally happy with the color scheme of Sky Pads 31, but I didn’t want to paint over it. So I didn’t. The photo in the original post was taken in a “daylight” setting, which brightened everything up and made the colors appear somewhat harsh, at least in my opinion.
So, I decided to photograph it as it would perhaps appear on someone’s wall, out of bright light but bathed in the warm lamp light of incandescent bulbs. (I know, who uses them anymore? But a lot of the LED’s come in various flavors, including warm light).
Such a difference a color temperature can make. I decided to leave the paint alone, and if anyone should decide they were going to purchase this one I would insist they take it home and put it in the intended space before coming to a final decision.
Here you go, after on the left, before on the right.
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- Only the light source changed.
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- Original version, photographed in “artificial daylight”.
Alli Farkas Artist Adventures 
The light source makes a lot of difference! The painting came out beautiful! I go for the warmer version!
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Me too.
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I Love this one!
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Really love this one with definition of the sky pads, and prefer the warmer version, too.
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I prefer the original version because the bluer palette reads more clearly as water reflecting the blue of the sky. The leaves are also more green. I tend to like cools, crisp colors, and favor greens and blues. Maybe because I live in the tropics I long for anything suggestive of a bit of coolness. Also, because I keep water plants, fish, and shrimp, the one on the left reminds me I need to do a water change.
I love those rich blues on the right. But me, I don’t really consider how something will appear in someone’s living room. I just think about the painting itself.
It looks quite nice either way, but I have my preference. In digital art, we tend to key up the contrast because our work will be seen on a monitor, so there’s another of my biases.
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I see your point of view perfectly. I think the beauty of this particularly unique piece is that like some hamburger chain whose name I have forgotten said in their ad, you can have it your way! Like it bright blue? Hang it near a window. Like it more subtle? Hang it on a back wall in your choice of artificial light. By the way, your crack about needing to do a water change had me laughing out loud. 😂
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When I had to photograph my paintings in the past, the standard technique was to use 2 500 watt bulbs at 45 degree angles. Nowadays you can probably get a good enough photo off a higher end smart phone and color correct it in Photoshop.
Anyway, as an artist I want to see a painting with the colors the artist chose, and mixed on the palette, and carefully combined. But I suppose you offer an extra service in providing potential customers with an approximation of how the painting might look in their environment.
For my eye, it may not do the painting justice, because relative to the rest of the room in question, in the yellower light, the blues that turned grey may still appear blue relative to the wall and other surroundings.
Are you joking about forgetting the name of the burger chain? If not, t’was Burger King. One of my minimum wage jobs, and so I can never forget their slogans. “Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce. Special orders don’t upset us. All we ask is that you let us, serve it your way. Have it your way, at Burger King.”
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Ironically, I do happen to have two 500-watt tungsten lights with stands and soft-light umbrellas. I also have a humongous SOB easel on which to mount the painting to be recorded for posterity. I used to photograph all of my work this way until my studio gradually became a victim of creeping clutter and I ran out of room to set everything up at the most advantageous positions. So I started doing my photography outdoors in bright shade, which worked perfectly until winter came. I am not a fan of standing around in minus-freezing temps. So I improvised, using natural light coming in from the sliding doors in my studio but it is never as good as being outdoors. Today we finally hit 45°F and I got a much improved, probably unable to be improved upon, shot. It portrays the lighter version quite accurately, delineating the subtleties nicely and not oversaturating or changing the colors. I’m happy now. If WP allowed photos in comments I would put it here. Maybe some day…are you listening WP? At the moment I don’t see the need to write a whole new post about it. Or maybe I should?
No, I was not joking about “have it your way”. I thought it might be Burger King, or it might be Wendy’s, wasn’t sure but when I’m replying at length to comments by pecking away at my phone I get too lazy to look it up. I’m lucky enough to even remember the slogan!
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My word! What a difference! I think I think the warmer one too.
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Nice blog xx
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¿Has contado con el “ojo” electrónico de la cámara? Los distintos modos de luz de la cámara influyen mucho en el resultado de la foto. Yo prefiero el natural, al fin y al cabo así es como ven los ojos de la artista.
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Disculpa la tardanza en responder. Pues sí, tengo una multitude de posibilidades con la cámara mía. Es un Nikon D7000. Normalmente utilizo el modo automático para sacar fotos afuera en un área bien iluminada pero al mismo tiempo en la sombra. Así salen los colores muy cerca a cómo parecen al ojo. El problema se encuentra en luz artificial. En ese caso ajusto todo a mano y si todavía no tengo resultado a mi gusto traslado todo a Photoshop para hacer finos cambios. En fin, es un proceso que me cuesta tiempo cuando preferiría estar pintando…
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Si, a todos nos pasa. Es seguramente el peor defecto, o la mejor cualidad, de los artistas, saber pensar solo como un artista que solo quiere estar con su Arte. No sabemos pensar como mercaderes.
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Wow! What a difference. But you know, I don’t think I can pick one over the other. I think it has to do with mood. The “cold” view appeals to my morning mood. (I’m thinking with my fingers, here, forgive me.) Whereas the warmer view seems right for evening, as the day winds down, as my energy level flags. (OR do these reaction illuminate how I’ve been shaped and groomed by the temperature of light throughout my life?)
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I can’t pick one over the other either. It just amazes me how it changes color in different light. I’ve never had a painting do this quite so obviously. Usually as the light changes they are either darker or lighter, or lose or gain contrast. The actual color changing is something new. If I had intended it I never would have gotten that effect. It’s not a photographic effect like you get when you have the wrong color temperature setting on your camera. This is naked eye color changing!
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Fascinating, Alli. Makes me wonder what the science is behind this phenomenon.
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All I can say is simple but not very helpful as far as actual science is concerned. Depending on conditions in the area of light we are experiencing, the color temperature of the light changes. Light bulbs give off different color temperatures, some warm, cold, or a thousand forms of in-between. Our eyes don’t always appreciate the difference so we don’t notice it when, say, we’re looking at a lemon in bright sun and then the same lemon in dark shade. All we know is that it looks yellow. However, if we had two identical lemons next to each other but with one of them under an incandescent lamp and the other one under a “cold temperature” fluorescent lamp we would definitely see two versions of yellow. A camera does this much better than our eyes because it doesn’t have a brain trying to tell us what something is supposed to look like versus what it actually does look like when it’s sitting in a color temperature of light that doesn’t meet our brain’s expectations. There is also a common but not always noticed phenomenon of “eye fatigue” which can keep us from noticing color differences if we’ve been staring at a color too long. For instance, if you change your phone from its bright daylight function (blue) to a softer night function (yellow), staring at either one of them for a prolonged period will cause your brain to interpret the background color as white. In the case of the indoor light for my painting versus the outdoor light for the same painting, both the color temperature and the luminance value (bright versus dark) were such complete opposites that our eyes won out over our brain. There are lots of fun and fascinating experiments done with light and color which if you’re truly interested I’m sure could be easily located by the ever-helpful Mr Google. 🤣
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Light and all its variables…definitely a deep subject, worthy of a life time’s research and observation.
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Such a huge difference! May I add a note to my Artistcoveries post sharing your link, please? It is really interesting — and helpful — to see this comparison.
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Of course! Help yourself 😊
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Thank you!
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