To get more practical about it all, here are a few things to think about and try: And one thing that can separate the good photographers with consistency from the ones with none, is the consistent use of color theory They don’t leave it to chance, or at least they recognize it, but typically make a conscious effort to control all elements within the frame, and color being one. It can guide a viewer’s eyes to tell a story or change the mood. Imagine if her shawl had been red and the wall purple, it would’ve been striking, but possibly not as incredible.Īnd that’s how it is, that color alone can make or break an image. Green and red are complementary, so it works, and oh so well. Looking at it, you’ll notice two colors shouting for the attention they deserve, and that’s how impossibly red her scarf is mixed with the green eyes and green background. It adorned the cover of National Geographic and earned the nickname, ‘the First World’s Third World Mona Lisa’. Or how about almost anything from Steve McCurry? Many of you will immediately think of ‘Afghan Girl’ the image of the young one with piercing green eyes that look into your soul. Who can forget the image of Grace Kelly lounging in a reddish-orange blouse reading Harper’s Bazaar as James Stewart uses his telephoto lens while lounging in his blue pajamas? Or in the case of Top Gun, the orange afterburner of the Tomcats against the deep blue skies. The use of complementary colors can be found in just about every great image and a scene of color. It’s really that simple, but it’s that profound. Essentially, they are just colors that seem to appeal to our sensibilities of what is harmonious and appealing, and all you need to really know is that a complementary color can be found by locating the color use on the color wheel, and then finding the one that’s directly opposite it, and there you have it. Now, I wouldn’t think that remembering all 9 secondary colors matters as much, but what you should really take away and look to the color wheel for, is to see how two colors can be complementary.Ĭomplementary colors, according to the unfaltering pillar of knowledge that is Wikipedia, are colors which cancel each other’s hue to produce an achromatic (white, gray or black) light mixture. There are, in a sense, an indefinite number of colors between, but convention dictates that there 9 secondary colors, and the rest deemed tertiary. On a color wheel, you’ll see a color spectrum that shows all possible colors that can be created via the mixing of Red, Green, and Blue – the primary colors. * Adobe Color CC is a great tool to bookmark and keep on hand to see how colors work together, and you can find it here. Color WheelĪ color wheel helps us understand the physical phenomena of light together with how it is perceived by our eyes and brain, and then use it. The color wheel then, becomes your best friend. And since colors affect mood and atmosphere, and the psychological and physiological, (such as the fact red make us excited and blue calms us down), we want to marry this knowledge without images to tell a story, and create impact. In fact, a color wheel is your epicenter for understanding color theory, as it helps us to understand the physical phenomenon associated with light, and how we see and use it. Hue refers to the color difference, with value referring to light and darker, and chroma references the brightness or dullness, and all can be seen on a color wheel. It is the roof under which hue, value, and chroma reside, and we adjust those all day in post. But color, like photography, can be thought of as a way to communicate – a silent language, if you will, much like photography. Color is all around us so often that we fail to always notice much about it, other than the fact it’s there. I would propose that color theory is just the understanding of how colors interact, their mixtures and their implementation. However, not knowing about it could be one of the biggest mistakes you’re making, or at the very least deserves even more of your attention. Why didn’t we learn it? Probably has something to do with the fact photography didn’t use to allow as much for manipulation as current digital media, and was more about capturing the real world, so there may have seen little use. How we learn photography today is so vastly different than before, and totally different to how art students learn, as for them, the importance of color theory is impressed unto them immediately. As photographers, we have a desire to just ‘do’ and just ‘create’ whatever is within, and theorizing doesn’t often come into play. It’s the word ‘theory’ that I believe turns most people away, especially as it intertwines the physics of light, physiology, and psychology.
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