COLOR THEORY FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS
by Sarah Gupta
“Color is the language of poets. It is astonishingly lovely. To speak it is a privilege.” Keith Crown
What Can You Expect to Learn From Me!
· A bit about me
· Introduction of Color Theory and Why It is SO Important
· Use of Complementary Color
· Colors With Repetition
· Analogous Colors
· Monochromatic Color Scheme
· Color Psychology
About Me
Hello! My name is Sarah Gupta (you may know me as @sarahkossakgupta on IG) and I am so excited to be here! Color is so very important to me in my work. It helps to translate a story that I am telling, to draw the viewers eye to what is most important and because it makes us feel a certain way. With that said, we will come to talk more about color in a short while. Here is a little bit about me.
I was born in Detroit, MI (USA) but moved when I was a little girl to a rural town outside of Pittsburgh, PA. This is where I grew up and what I really call home. I come from a line of artists in my family. My greatest inspiration was my grandmother. She earned a living as an illustrator and I recall from childhood visiting her studio where she always had a canvas on the easel or pottery in her kiln. I would hand her a picture to draw and would spend my visit trying my best to replicate it just like how she drew it.
My mother enrolled me in art classes from the age of five and I never lost my passion for it. I also had a passion for the outdoors, science and medicine. I made the choice after high school to pursue degrees in Animal Bioscience and then Molecular Medicine rather than go to art school. I met my husband during this journey, married and had our son, Aiden. Shortly before Aiden was born, I did not have time to be painting or drawing. I was deep into my career at the time and art took a stand still. However, I need a creative outlet. It is a part of who I am. This is where I discovered photography as an art form. It took much less time rather than the countless hours that I poured into a painting. I learned that you can compose images through the lens and create works of art. I spent almost seven years finding my voice and drawing inspiration from painters of the Golden Age that I was so inspired by growing up. Painters like Rembrandt and Vermeer who used low light and light interplay. While other painters, like Monet, who’s stunning rich landscapes and color made me critically think about my surroundings and how I could enhance my subject. Combined, this is where my work has evolved and is still evolving. My goal is to capture what my son and future children see through my photographs, how I saw them as they grew and to hopefully inspire others in their creative process while creating works of art.
Color Theory and Its Importance
At this point, you have an idea about what color is and the role it plays in your photography. I am also sure you have heard over and over again about what color theory is and I don’t want to teach you the technical details exactly about it. You can read about that on google. I want you to have a great take away from me, not just an elaborate section on color. Color theory is just about color relationships and is very subjective in my opinion as it is translated from artist to artist. It is how you interpret it as you look at it. Color theory is used in our everyday and you use it without realizing it. Color theory is one of the most important tools you have as a photographer. You can use it to control the viewer of your work and have them see exactly what you want them to see. Color theory is a huge part of the editing process. When you adjust the sliders in the HSL panel in LR or use the adjustment layers in PS, you are using color theory.
I intentionally dressed my son in blue and yellow to bring out the blue in the sky and the yellow from the grass. I wanted to separate him from the vast carpet of green and and draw your eye over the image.
You can use color theory to be very technical or you can use it to exaggerate your image and be creative or artistic. That is your decision. This is where I feel it can be very subjective. You can control the viewers mood, their emotions. You can control directly how they feel about the image that you are putting in front of them. It is how you use color. As an artist, the most important factor is your creative expression. How you come across with color, and how you express yourself based off of what you want the viewer to see but also based on how you want to feel toward that image as well. We are controlling the stage at this point. We are controlling the viewers emotions and ours too. That can be incredibly difficult for some people to put ourselves out there like that because with our color choice we are creating a personal attachment to it. A person might not like your color palette and then overall might not like that image. However, by understanding how color works together and knowing a little bit about the technical side of it (we do need to know some of it), we can become more better at pulling color together to draw viewers in.
In this image, I put the colors of mustard yellow, red and shades of green on my son to match the environment. This is known as color repetition. The subject is immersed with the scene and does not specifically stand out.
Use of Complementary Color
The use of complementary color is a huge driving force in my work. Knowing your complimentary colors and how to efficiently use it to your advantage can be a game changer in your work.
I know you were given this in the first lesson, but am going to flash it to you again because it is so important. First, you MUST understand your primary, secondary and tertiary colors. Invest a little bit of time to know your basic color wheel. This is so important for photographers.
Now for your complementary colors:
Complementary colors are any color that is across from one another on the color wheel!
I intentionally use color almost all the time. It is for the most part planned out. If I know we are going to a location with specific color in the environment, I will dress my son to complement the scene and make him stand out.
In the photo, my son had collected on a walk these pines and pine cones. When we got home, he asked to have a photo taken of his treasures and I dashed inside my home to find something red or maroon to complement the green. I knew I would be doing an above shot over green grass and the red would really help to tie the green together. In the portrait photo below, I found red berries to pair with the pines and used a cream neutral shirt to highlight the natural treasures and my sons eyes.
In this photo, I had in my mind to photograph this Russian sage. I, personally, love Russian sage and its fragrance and thought purple would be a great way to show a color transition from winter into spring. My son loves running his hands through the flowers and smelling his hands as well and knew he would be easy to quickly get some photos. I threw on a mustard yellow shirt and you can see how lovely the use of complementary colors are used here.
Finally, in this image, I used the moody blue sky and the orange shirt. I saw out of the window in my house that an incredible sky was forming and wanted to offset my son against the green foliage and sky. I chose this orange shirt with this intention in mind and we set off on a walk.
Colors With Repetition
Repetition of the same tones and hues is another way I love to incorporate color in an image. Repeating patterns or color leads your eye across an image allowing you to see the image as a whole without missing any details. I love to use the repetition of color especially in the fall where you have an abundance of color in your environment and all of the same warm earth tones.
Yellow, red and green are seen throughout!
Neutral tones of brown and beige are repeated.
Again, yellow and red are both on the subject and the foliage!
The repeating colors of red and green are displayed on both subject and ground.
Green and yellow are the primary colors that you see repeated in this image.
Analogous Colors
Analogous colors are a grouping of any three colors next to each other on the color wheel. I love to highlight analogous colors in the sky at sunset or golden hour!
In this image, the reds and yellows of the sun flare are used as analogous colors as a major storytelling component.
In this image, the analogous colors of yellow and green are portrayed here. Green is the background color (grass) and my son’s yellow shirt /golden sparkler bokeh are its analogous color.
In this two images above, again, I am using yellow and green as analogous colors.
Monochromatic Color Scheme
Monochromatic colors are achieved by making all the colors in an image by matching the tonal values in a given hue. Many people often think of black and white images as monochromatic but often times you can have color images be monochromatic. While I do not shoot lifestyle photography in a monochromatic palette, I do sometimes use this color scheme when shooting macro in nature.
Color Psychology
I wanted to touch briefly on color psychology because it can also convey mood or emotion and feeling to the viewer. There is an interesting app that I love and often share when I teach called ADOBE CAPTURE. You can get it here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/adobe-capture/id1040200189.
What I want you to do is pick a favorite image of yours and plug it into the app. It will pick colors out for you and give you a palette. Here is an example of a favorite photo that I chose: I see a lot of neutral tones and some warmth. I would say that describes a lot of what I shoot! What does that mean?
Warm:
Warm Colors red, orange and yellow are next to each other on the wheel and are all warm colors. Warm colors often evoke feelings of happiness, optimism and energy. Red is the warmest and most dynamic of the colors — it triggers opposing emotions. It is often associated with passion and love as well as anger and danger. It can increase a person’s heart rate and make them excited. Red is a great color to draw attention and enhance the subject; but use it in moderation! Orange enhances a feeling of vitality and happiness. Like red, it draws attention and shows movement but is not as overpowering. It is aggressive but balanced — it portrays energy yet can be inviting and friendly. Yellow is perhaps the most energetic of the warm colors. It is associated with laughter, hope and sunshine. Accents of yellow help give your design energy and will make the viewer feel optimistic and cheerful.
Cool Colors:
Cool colors include green, blue, and purple. Cool colors are usually calming and soothing but can also express sadness. Purple is often used to help spark creativity as it’s a mixture of blue(calm) and red (intense). Green is the easiest on the eyes and should be used to relax and create balance in an image. Blue evokes feelings of calmness and spirituality as well as security and trust. Seeing the color blue causes the body to create chemicals that are calming. Purple is often used to soothe or calm a viewer
Neutral Colors:
Neutral colors include black, gray, white, tan and brown. In images, these colors are great as background colors. Use black, gray and white when using brighter colors. If you are using textures, then incorporate tan and brown as your backdrop for possibly still life photography indoors. It is important to note that colors can be subjective – what might make one person feel cheerful can make another person feel irritated depending on the viewers’ past experiences or cultural differences.
What color palette describes you?
Below is a chart that summarizes what I explained above J
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