Color My World

by Carol

Remember Kelly's post on Tuesday about capturing the blueberries? (If you missed it you can see it here.) The blue and green combination immediately blew me away, and it sounds like that was what drew Kelly in, when she saw the magazine article. As a photographer, and not a trained painter, I haven't had much exposure to color theory. But now I am fascinated by it. Color is one of the main photographic elements that can catch your eye, change your subject and effect the mood of your image. It can determine the focal point of your picture, sometimes unwittingly. And, if you are drawn to black and white, understanding color and tone can make you a much better black and white photographer.

Complimentary colors are opposite each other on the color wheel. They are strong, young, vibrant. In a large scene they are more effective if used sparingly because they can easily overwhelm.

Analogous colors are next to each other on the wheel. They blend well, and have a calming influence on your mood. They are everywhere in nature. Your image can get boring if they are too evenly paced - better to let one dominate, and the other provide contrast.

I have a color wheel hanging near my computer. I use it when I'm doing still lifes to choose what I will photograph. Look how the yellow petal makes the magenta veins pop in the flower below. Makes you want to replace your white blouse with a yellow one when you wear that purple pashmina, doesn't it?

Color combinations can change the way you see a color. Below, that's the same color in the middle. (Thanks, YouTube!)

Using the color sliders in Photoshop and Lightroom can make your photo so much more interesting. Is our model's purple eyeshadow too stark? Increase your yellow slider and paint the area and bring it into the same tonal range as the rest of the photo. Another slider use - direct your viewers eye away from some objects and towards others, just as you do with the path of light, and create a path of color.  "Watch" your eye follow the bright green in this next photo.

And, as I mentioned above, before converting an image to B/W, pump the complimentary sliders. For example, turn the reds way up and the greens way down. It will look terrible in the color version, but when you convert it to B/W, it will provide you with a greater tonal range.

Just as it is fun to pick a certain lens, or mode and explore it exclusively for a time, it's a great learning tool to pick a basic element like color, or light or depth of field and explore it exclusively for a month or so. There are some great tutorials on YouTube. I enjoyed this one, among many.  I can also recommend a few books - "Color and Human Response" and "The Basic Law of Color Theory."

Have fun playing with your sliders! I hope you learn buckets! And, as always, please show us your results in Flickr, Instagram or your 365. And speaking of showing your results, this month's theme is, appropriately enough, RED. This should be fun!