Behind the Frame / Places / 049
The Colors family visits Liverpool
Four pencils become a family on a day out: the children discover the wheel while their parents give them room to explore.
01 / The message
The story
I see in it.
This is the Colors family visiting Liverpool: a blue dad, a yellow mum and their two green children. Their colours carry the family connection—a playful nod to mixing blue and yellow in a paintbox. I imagined the children fascinated by the observation wheel, with the parents watching nearby and leaving them space to move freely.
The photograph began before I left home. I put the tin of coloured pencils in my backpack with this kind of picture in mind, then worked through the arrangement and tried it out. The different heights, the space between children and parents, and the great wheel behind them all serve that little family story.
02 / Technique serving the idea
Reading the
technical choices.
The JPEG records 34mm, f/18, 1/60 sec and ISO 100. I deliberately kept the whole pencil family in focus and the wheel softer but recognisable. Aperture, focal length and focusing distance all affect depth of field; background distance also matters to its appearance. [1] Here the wheel gives the family somewhere to visit without becoming the main subject.
The shadows extend to the left, yet the pencils remain well lit. I placed a gold-coloured reflector to the left to lift the shadowed sides: it was the metal lid of the pencil tin itself. A reflector redirects available light towards a subject. [2] That simple lid let me keep the visible cast shadows while avoiding overly dark faces on my little characters.
Keep & build on
A family told through colour
Blue and yellow belong to the parents, green to the children. Together with their heights, those choices give four ordinary pencils distinct roles.
Space that tells the story
The children stand ahead of the adults. The gap is part of the idea: curiosity and freedom, with the parents still close by.
Light and focus supporting the cast
The reflected light makes the pencils readable, while the softer wheel remains recognisable. Both choices keep attention on the family.
Question & explore
Separating the small characters
I would try tiny changes in camera position to check the two green outlines against the background, preserving their place ahead of the parents.
The blue tip and the wheel
The tallest point sits close to the wheel’s edge. A small sideways move could make that relationship cleaner without changing the family arrangement.
How much reflected light
I would compare a few lid angles and distances. The useful version would reveal the pencils clearly while retaining their shape and the sense of sunlight.
One practical next step
An experiment
to try.
Give a few coloured objects roles in a small story before arranging them. Decide who leads, who watches and what the background contributes. Photograph the same arrangement with and without a simple reflector, keeping the camera settings fixed. Compare whether the lighting makes your intended characters easier to read.
Technical references
These sources support the marked technical explanations. The composition readings and experiments are my reflections.
Readers’ thoughts
Approved comments only · Shared across the English and Italian versions