Media 203 Advanced Digital Photography Subject Chevreuls successive

Media 203 Advanced Digital Photography Subject: Chevreul’s successive contrast Presented by Lee Schleckser

Michel-Eugène Chevreul 1786 -1889 Chevreul was a French Chemist who was notable for his work in natural -source pigments. In 1824, not long after he was appointed the director of dyes at a tapestry works, he began to study the dyes they were using. There had been several complaints about the colors not being as bright as customers would prefer.

He discovered that the problem lay not in the dyes, but in the way people were perceiving the colors. When put side-by-side in two different situations, the same color can look like two different ones. These two grey squares are the same tone, but they look different.

One of the most important things he did was to bring all the visible colors and to put them on a wheel together, demonstrating where the contrasts are, and how complimentary tones work. An example of Chevruel’s color wheel

An example of color contrast. Chevruel pioneered this concept.

Color tones manipulated by surrounding shades.

This optical illusion demonstrates successive contrast. The grey dots don’t actually exist, but because of the contrast between white and black, your eyes think they do.

Chevruel’s work greatly influenced the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist age of art. Many great artists have made use of his concepts to make the colors in their paintings seem more dramatic. Van Gogh was particularly famous for this.

The Café Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night By Vincent van Gogh Van Gogh often used brightly contrasting colors, in this case blue and yellow, to add a sense of drama to his paintings.

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