Colour Colour Colour!

When shooting colour images there is much more to think about when it comes to your subject. One of the reasons black and white works so well is that it simplifies things and draws your attention to the parts of an image that really matter. As beautiful and emotive as vivid colours are, they can easily clutter a picture if their impact is not understood. In short different colours behave differently together. Warm colours such as red, orange or yellow will jump out at you where as cooler colours like green and blue will recede into the picture. This is particularly important when choosing objects and their backgrounds. Look at the red/blue squares above. In both instances the red boxes stand out. However, because of the deep impact that red has, the image on the left is somewhat overpowered. Not all colours actually work together either. The best way to understand this is to look at a colour wheel. It shows the relationship between primary, secondary and complementary colours. The best advice I have is to make use of the primary colours and don’t over clutter. Look for objects that stand out. Initially start with trying to photograph a single colour then pair it up with another and find where the right balance is. Then three colours and so on.