Did you know that you can use a single color to grab the viewer's attention?
When it comes to visual perception, if light is the king, color is the queen, or the king's twin brother. When you know how to play with both, you can present your work in endless ways and make your viewers feel, not just look.
SO HOW DO WE USE COLOR IN PHOTOGRAPHY?
While working with colors, we are looking to achieve three main things:
- Create color harmony and feeling.
- Create color contrast.
- Attract the viewer's attention.
CREATING COLOR HARMONY
Creating color harmony in photography means combining colors in a way that feels visually pleasing and balanced. It's about ensuring the colors within a photograph work together cohesively, creating a sense of unity and aesthetic appeal, a palette that is calm to the eye and gives the image a harmonious feel.
The easiest way to create harmony is by using colors from the same side of the color wheel.
Harmony with a single color. You can create color harmony by using a majority of a single color across the image.
Harmony with warm colors only. By using mostly warm colors across the entire image, the photo feels warm and harmonious.
CREATING COLOR CONTRAST
There are many ways to achieve contrast. The most popular:
- Hue contrast: Using colors that are distinctly different on the color wheel, For example, placing red next to green or blue next to orange creates a strong hue contrast.
- Value contrast: It basically means how bright or how dark a certain color is. High color contrast occurs when light and dark colors are placed next to each other. It is very similar to the way you would simply work with light contrast
- Saturation contrast: Saturation is the intensity of a color. Combining highly saturated colors with desaturated, muted ones creates contrast.
- Warm-cool contrast: Warm colors (such as red, orange, and yellow) contrast with cool colors (such as blue, green, and purple).
- Quantity contrast: This involves using different amounts of the same color to create variation. For instance, a small pop of a bright color against a predominantly neutral background can draw attention.
HUE + WARM-COOL CONTRAST EXAMPLE
The use of colors from opposite sides of the color wheel, like blue and yellow.
The mix between warm and cold.
QUANTITY CONTRAST EXAMPLE
HERE ARE 3 TIPS ON HOW TO USE COLOR TO GRAB THE VIEWER'S ATTENTION
Use a bright or saturated color in the scene. Bright or saturated colors will naturally stand out more than dull or muted colors.
This is classic... How many times have you been hanging out with other photographers and it will come up in a way: "Wow! Great frame, only if there was a woman in a red dress passing through."
The reason why photographers like women in red dresses in their photographs is because they simply pop. It's an immediate attention hijack. That is how effective a bold color like red can be.
Use color as a focal point. Position the subject or the area you want to emphasize in the frame so that it's surrounded by the chosen color. The color should frame, highlight, or surround the subject, making it stand out from the rest of the scene.
Minimize other colors. Keep the rest of the scene relatively muted or neutral in terms of color. By minimizing competing colors, you ensure that the chosen color remains the primary focus.
Use bright or saturated colors in the scene. Bright or saturated colors will naturally stand out more than dull or muted colors.
A WAY TO IMPLEMENT COLORS IN YOUR TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY
During my last trip to Vietnam, I found myself a game to play. I noticed that the women there tend to wear very colorful outfits, and the color combinations inspired me to create a small series that I would like to share with you. I would search for different color combinations and photograph them.
If you want to train yourself to notice color on the street, I've included a set of color exercises in my guide on developing the photographic eye.