Spring Showers on Ponte Vecchio, Florence

Photograph Copyright ©2013 Loo Yen Yeo. All Rights Reserved.

Concept: Depth (diluting depth); Perspective (tonal); Perspective (colour); Perspective (sharpness); Muted colours (contemplative)

Description: The presence of historic Florence is immediately felt due to the downplay perspectival clues.

• linear perspective - convergence of lines decreased using the zoom facility
• tonal perspective - diffused lighting lowers the difference between foreground and background contrast
• colour perspective - the lack of bright colours as worn by the pedestrians (by fortunate circumstance) and muted by lighting conditions, causes the foreground elements to recede, while the bright golden orb atop the Duomo appears to advance, compressing the viewing planes together. 
• sharpness - outlines of distant buildings are only slightly less sharp

Title: --

04.05 Muted Colours

Muted colours abound in nature, very much more so than bright colours (which are more common in man-made environments). They are referred to as low-saturation, desaturated or subdued colours; and sometimes unflatteringly as 'washed-out', 'less-than-pure', muddy, shadowy or broken colours. Perhaps the way we use language to describe muted colours is indicative of how our attention is more immediately captured by high-contrast, colour-saturated images. But the converse can also be true; that although low-saturation images can have a beauty that is slower to realise, they can have a more enduring appeal.

In terms of composition, muted colours can:

• lend better opportunities to work with members of the same sector in the colour wheel;
• offer subtlety and refinement; and
• project important moods such as gloominess, foreboding, calmness, and contemplativeness.