A powerful tool: Understanding Colour Theory for Photographers ~ Blog
The psychology of colour in the world of photography and creative imagery is an important tool to use. Colour theory can often be used to enhance a particular composition and make a statement, but it's also important to understand how colours interact with each other. For example, complementary colours such as blue and orange can be used together to create images that pop visually, while warmer hues like reds and yellows can create soft, subtle effects. By understanding how colours work together, photographers and creatives are able to create more interesting composite images that contain both colour and texture.
Colour theory allows you to draw on basic elements such as lightness/darkness or saturation/dullness when creating their composites. You can use combinations of these elements to emphasize certain features or draw attention away from others in order to shape the overall look of your work.
One of the things you can do to get some dynamic colour in your photo is to pick one colour and let that colour be the star. Everything else you choose to go along with that color will be more neutral or fade into the background giving deference to that color.
If you are shooting landscapes – you might have a colourful building for example a red building, compose your image where the red building as the dominant colour and your background is fading back letting the red pull the eye.
There are many ways to get creative with colour. It is all about thoughtful choices and training your eye to see in colour as well as subject and composition.
Understanding Colour Theory
◼ As photographers and creatives, we have a lot of tools available to us: compositional rules, lighting knowledge, the exposure triangle, and so on. Colour is just another one of those tools.
◼ While it can be an intimidating element knowing and understanding colour theory — the way painters, designers, and artists of all trades do — you can utilize colour to your benefit.
◼ I still use landscapes as backgrounds for some of my creative images.
◼ When I started my processing journey I would enhance the colours, but didn't change colours too much, the colour was there to work with.
As my skills developed, I started to want more out of my photos, and I started to experiment with "colour choices" and that is where my understanding of colour came back to me. I made definite "colour choices" for landscapes and creative images. For example, I would work with certain colours to enhance the colour, tone, shades and tint in my images.
Now "colour choices" are an important part of my workflow to create an image.
What is Colour?
An understanding of colour is essential to the success of any design. Colour has a distinct visual language and is the most emotional element of design, often creating a personal reaction from the viewer. Colour is the easiest and cost-effective way of instantly creating a mood. Colour sets the scene. It offers mood and atmosphere. It gives first impression and tells an emotional story in paintings and photography. As well as these influences individuals have their own reactions to colour.
It is important to understand the effect of light on colour and how a colour behaves in the light. Cool colours and tints will make a space appear larger while warm colours and shades will make a space appear smaller. With colour knowledge comes confident choices and the right colour choices.
Have you ever noticed how some photographers have really defined their style and their photos have a mood that runs through their photographic library? That doesn’t happen by chance. That is from some deliberate decisions that photographer has made to create that mood/style.
There are many ways to create moods in your photography or creative images. You can create the mood by:
◼ The colours you like to photograph
◼ Your background and base colours
◼ How you choose to process your photos
◼ Using textures
Just to name a few… The moods you choose to create in your photography are a defining factor, something that people will recognize in your artistic style. Thinking about the moods you want to create before you start will allow you to be more defined, colour can be a mood creator as well.
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