Colour Theory Guide - A Must for Photography

composition
Written By Mike James

As smartphones have improved over the years, so too have photo-editing apps. The truth is, anyone can use strategic mobile editing to make just about any photo look better after it's been taken. However, if you want to spend more time taking fantastic photos and less time editing, understanding colour theory is a great way to start. Continue reading below for our comprehensive colour theory guide to capturing beautiful photos, and find out everything you need to know to up your photography game.

Categorizing color

Before you can learn how to use colour in your photography, it's important first to discuss how different colours are categorised in relation to colour theory. As we go over the different ways colour can be classified, we'll often be referring to the RGB colour model, more commonly known as the colour wheel.

1. Analogous

Let's start with analogous colours or adjacent colours on the colour wheel. Analogous colour combinations can consist of as few as two colours or as many as half of the colours on the colour wheel.

2. Complementary

Complementary colours are two colours on the wheel that match well together by enhancing and emphasising one another. On the colour wheel, complementary shades are colours that are directly across from each other. Respectively, these colour combinations are: yellow and purple, red and green, and blue and orange.

3. Split Complementary

When talking about split complementary colours, you'll be speaking in terms of your colour palette more often than not. This is because split complementary colours are colour combinations that include at least two complementary colours and at least one analogous colour. For example, A palette of split complementary colours might have a mix of orange, blue, and yellow shades.

Expert Tip:

To offset overly contrasting complementary colours, try sprinkling in an analogous colour to create a more harmonious combination of split complementary colours.

4. Triadic

Similar to split complementary colours, triadic colour combinations incorporate several colours on the colour wheel to form a balanced colour palette. Triadic colour schemes are made up of three evenly dispersed colours on the colour wheel. Perhaps the most well-known triadic colour scheme is that of the primary colours blue, red, and yellow.

Now that you have a more thorough understanding of how colour is categorised, let's dig into how you can use your newly acquired knowledge to improve your photography.

Improve your photos with colour contrast

Consider, for a moment, your favourite black and white film. Chances are, regardless of what it may be, certain scenes stick out visually in your memory better than others. Often, this is because of one compositional element: colour contrast.

Palettes including complementary colours, mixes of warm colours (reds, oranges, and yellows), and cold colours (greens, blues, and purples) are considered contrasting colour combinations. To see the striking effect that colour contrast has, you can look for examples of colour contrast in nature, like a red rose with a green leaf, or create them yourself with household items, like a bunch of bananas on a purple background.

You can use colour contrast to juxtapose compositional elements, isolating the subject, foreground, background, etc., to create a more distinct look and feel in your photos. Classic colour contrasts you may want to consider experimenting with are: black and white, orange and blue, yellow and purple, and green and red.

Feature dominant colours for captivating photos

Generally, the best photographs are those that capture our attention and our imaginations. One way that you can do this in your photos is to tell a story through colour,

The dominant colour (also called the main or key colour) is the most abundant and/or the most pronounced colour in a photo. You can accentuate different aspects of your photos by implementing bold, vibrant hues as your dominant colour to command and direct the viewer's attention.

Expert Tip: Experiment with different lighting techniques and exposure settings to naturally increase and decrease colour saturation in your photos and help create the mood.

Compose strong photos using a limited colour palette

In addition to using dominant colours and contrasting colours, you can also try limiting your colour palette for strong, impactful photos. Limited colour palettes might be monochromatic, dichromatic, or trichromatic, but often don't include more than 3 or 4 individual colours. The key to working with a limited colour palette is to use various shades and hues to hone the sense of harmony or contrast between the colours.

The next time you're taking photos with your phone, you can try the following exercise to test out working with a limited colour palette. Walk around your home to find objects that are all one colour and assemble them for a shoot. Try taking some photos with a contrasting colour background, then take some with a background of the same colour.

Once you've finished, compare your photos. How are the shots different? How are they alike? Does the story you're telling or the message you're trying to get across change? Do they draw the viewer's attention to different aspects of your photos as a result? Asking yourself questions like these can help further your understanding of colour theory and enhance your skills as a photographer.

Take advantage of colour to create mood

When thinking about colour theory, it can be helpful to think about colours in terms of emotions, especially when attempting to produce a specific mood in your photo. Particular colours, and even the absence thereof, have an intrinsic relationship with emotions and can heighten the overall vibe of your photos.

Warm colours are usually associated with energetic emotions like happiness, anger, hunger, and romance. In contrast, cold colours are frequently said to evoke lower-energy feelings like tranquillity, sadness, anxiety, and fear. The next time you're on the road travelling or watching television, take a look at different types of advertisements for some exaggerated examples of colour used to influence mood.

Still, there are no fast and hard rules when it comes to art, and photography is certainly no exception. Feelings and emotional reactions are subjective, so don't forget to take your emotional responses to colour into account when establishing the mood of your photograph.

Add style to your photography via colour

Bearing in mind that mood is the overall feeling evoked from a photograph, let's look at how you can use colour to add style to your photos. In terms of photography, a photograph's style can allude to two things: the distinctive way you take photos as a photographer or the different elements of your photo that contribute to its overall mood.

First, imagine that you have a glob of cherry red paint on a piece of paper. If you were to add white paint gradually, then the red would begin to lighten more and more until eventually, it would be pure white; this is the process of colour tinting. If you were to shade your imaginary glob of paint, you would progressively add black, and the paint would darken until it became pure black. To tone the colour of your red paint glob, you would repeat the process for shading and tinting, but with the colour grey instead.

You can use shading and enhance toning to contribute to photos with sullen, negative moods. Conversely, for photos with a more upbeat or positive mood, you may want to try tinting your photos for a brighter, more luminescent aesthetic.

Expert Tip:
Split toning refers to adding two different tones, one to the highlights and one to the shadows, whereas colour grading is when you add a third colour tone to your photo's mid-tones.

Embrace colour and explore your creativity

Congratulations! You're now on your way to being an expert in colour theory! Remember to have fun, embrace colour, and use it to explore your creativity the next time you're out taking photos. 

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Mike James https://www.smartphonephotographytraining.com
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