There isn't much that makes my heart as happy as color theory does. I just love the way colors can play together and really enhance an image. They can evoke such a strong emotional response and aid in the overall mood of an image. I'm not going to lie when I say that I am not naturally a color theory shooting photographer. For one, my kids do not let me dress them, not even my youngest who is two. Secondly, I do not have any experience or background in art whatsoever. That being said, I have enjoyed learning and exploring color theory over the years and I do try to use its whenever and however possible. Learning color theory has really helped me with the dreaded question I get almost every time I book a family session and that is, "What should we wear?" It's a daunting question but I do try to pull all the things I have learned about color theory out from the depths of my brain when answering it.
I just love color and can never answer consistently what my favorite color is because I truly love them all(even brown)! I really enjoy watching and seeing how you guys use and pair colors together and the combinations that you come up with. I love the way contrasting colors pop and feel exciting and even a bit rebellious in a way; and I equally love the way monochromatic colors play together in a more calming, serene way. However you decide to use color, I am here for it. Here are a few of your images that have caught my eye, and as always, I wish I could share them all.
xoxo
Gear: Nikon Z7 sigma art 50mm
Settings: 1/500 1.8 iso 200
The Shot: Nate loves sticks, he found this big one on our walk and I asked him to turn and face me. This is the face I got.
Post Processing: Warmth, contrast, dehaze in ACR. Added a slight vignette and lifted the shadows. Cooled the greens and added vibrance. Levels and curves in PS for contrast and skin pop then a gradient for warmth.
Gear: Canon 5D Mark III
Settings: ISO 100 50MM F5.6
The Shot: I shot this image around 11am on a beautiful farm near my home.
Post Processing: I edited this image to bring out the oranges, burgundy and yellows which would be my colour theme for the image. I enhanced the overall fall vibes using a gradient filter, warmed the image up and adjusted contrast, clarity, shadows in camera raw. I also added some leaf overlays to further enhance the fall vibes while keeping with my colour scheme.
Gear: Canon 5Dm3, 135mm
Settings: f5, 800, 1/400
The Shot: Decided to do a few pictures of my daughter in this outfit before she grew out of it. Liked how the floral pattern matched the warm colors of the grass in the background and her top contrasted the warmth to make her stand out.
Post Processing: Edited in LR and PS
Gear: Sony aRiii with 35mm
Settings: ISO 400, f2, 1/2000
The Shot: We decorated our front door and she was playing. I am doing four seasons front door photo project. So here is our Fall.
Post Processing: Edited in LR and PS, mainly increase the color vibrance and saturation.
Gear: Sony a7iii with Canon 24-70mm
Settings: f/3.2 1/1000 ISO 100
The Shot: I shot this while standing at the top of the slide as my son slid down.
Post Processing: It was edited in Lightroom and then pulled into Photoshop to removed a few additional shadows I found to be distracting.
Gear: Canon 6D M2 with 35mm 1.4
Settings: ISO 100 f2.8 1/2000
The Shot: I was enjoying a G&T in the sunshine when my daughter got up and walked away. I caught her just before she ran off round the corner.
Post Processing: I edited in LR by bringing down the highlights and shadows. I added some contrast and grain as I quite like that more vintage look for summer photos. I also reduced the saturation, and upped the vibrancy.
Gear: Nikon D500 and 18-300mm
Settings: f10, 1/500, ISO 320
The Shot: Focused and spot metered on the white trunk of the aspen
Post Processing: Edited in Lightroom where I warmed, brightened, and increased saturation slightly.
Gear: Nikon D750 and Nikon 105mm Macro Lens
Settings: F/3.5, 1/160, ISO500
The Shot: I had no model so decided to play with my macro and coloured pencils on my dining room table.
Post Processing: Edited with a Brittany Chandler matte preset, slight crop and increase in clarity, texture and contrast.
Gear: Nikon d5600, 35mm
Settings: f2.8, iso100, 1/500
The Shot: Found these purple flowers and had to pair them with the yellow trees in the background.
Post Processing: Edited in LR
Gear: Canon Mark III, Canon 24-70mm 2.8
Settings: 24mm, f/2.8, ISO 250, 1/800
The Shot: The window in our school room faces southeast and gets good light late morning to early afternoon. This is a common location for me to shoot as we're in our school room a lot. My 24-70mm offers the flexibility I need when shooting in smaller spaces.
Post Processing: Basic Lightroom edit with radial and gradient filters as needed to enhance contrast and dodge/burn. Additional Photoshop edit for color correction, skin saturation and to apply an overlay.
Gear: I shot this with my Canon 5D Mark III on a 35 mm lens
Settings: f2, ISO 100, 1/640
The Shot: The yellow leaves along our driveway are so beautiful, so I asked my kiddos to put on something blue to get contrasting colors, & then just walk up the driveway.
Post Processing: I edited this with a Mastin Labs preset. I decreased the contrast, as I don’t like how much that preset gives, increased the shadows, & decreased my blacks. That was it.
Gear: Nikon D750, 35mm 1.8
Settings: ISO 160, f2.2, 1/200
The Shot: I shot this image after we finished doing our family portraits with one of my good friends. The light was almost completely gone, but my daughter stole my hat and ran off with it. I saw the light peeking through the trees and positioned myself so it would backlight her.
Post Processing: Edited in LR using SMAL01 as a base. Removed grain, matte, and increased the warmth. I used a dodge brush on my daughter to help make her stand out a little better, and added a little contrast and clarity.
Gear: Nikon d750, sigma 35mm 1.4
Settings: ISO 100, f1.4, 1/1000
The Shot: My daughter asked for her very own photo shoot with the marigolds i brought home. I gave her my hat and the flowers and she did her thing. It was raining so she happened to be looking up and letting it rain on her face. I caught her laughing.
Post Processing: Edited in LR using SMAL01 with Earthbound tones. Made a lot of tweaks to the color sliders, WB, and exposure. Brought into PS to heal some of the background.
Gear: Nikon D750 24mm 1.8
Settings: ISO 100 f/16 1/500ss
The Shot: I just loved the muted brown and how it stood out amongst the white
Post Processing: I added contrast using the tone curve, added clarity, used the transform tool to fix lines and increased luminance to reduce noise.
Gear: Nikon D750 with Tamron 24-70 on 24mm
Settings: ISO 160, f 6.3, 1/640
The Shot: I can't believe i got this shot because this child is scared of waves but her sister was doing 'sand angels' and she was copying her. After the wave lapped on her, it was all done. Loved how the sand and her skin tone worked with the colors of her suit.
Post Processing: Just applied a preset I modified from Virginia Greuloch's The Good Life.
Gear: Canon EOS R6 with Canon 28-70mm at 47mm
Settings: 1/250 f8.0 ISO 100
The Shot: My girls have fallen in love with Double Dutch and every evening after dinner they want to go practice. This time of year for us, that means we are always out playing during sunset. I wanted to capture our Double Dutch time so one evening I suggested we go to the park instead of our driveway which is sloped. I was planning on getting silhouettes so I was getting my settings ready while the sun went down and shot this one at the perfect moment with my daughter jumping and the sun just dipping over the mountains behind her. I like the silhouettes I got with the timer later, but this one is my favorite.
Post Processing: I had underexposed slightly so I wouldn't blow out the sunset, so in LR I brought up the exposure and shadows and brought down highlights. I cropped in a tiny bit so that the rope holders were centered in the frame. I increased the blue saturation and decreased the blue luminance to balance out the bright orange sunburst.
Gear: Canon 5DIV and Sigma 35 mm f/1.4
Settings: 1/125 sec, f/2, ISO 500
The Shot: My daughter was playing in these tunnels on a Halloween trail near our pumpkin patch. When I noticed the framing and reflection I asked her to come back and look up to light at the top of the tunnel. I exposed for the highlights at her end.
Post Processing: In Lightroom I cropped and straightened. I lowered the highlights at the bright end of the tunnel and slightly altered the contrast and colours using the HSL panel.