The path of becoming a good photographer isn’t the easiest one. You have to learn about many things: lighting, composition, and the exposure triangle are some of them.
But, like all the other elements that make a great photo, color is probably one of the most important ones.
Our world is filled up with so many hues and situations of colors, and as a photographer, you have to learn about how it all works.
So today, we’re going to talk about colors, which combines a perfect blend of science, art, culture, and your style.
We hope this color theory in photography guide will answer every question you have about color (elementary and harmony) . Let’s get started.
The Fundamentals of Understanding Color Theory in Photography
When we capture a photo, we are actually capturing the light.
So, the first thing that we have to understand is how light works in conjunction with photography.
Light is the essential ingredient that we require to make photographs. Without light, there is no way for us to create an image.
Color and Light
light also has another ability up its sleeve; it can produce color. As light is an electromagnetic wave that can travel through space, this physical property is responsible for providing colors.
What we see as colors is a tiny portion of the entire electromagnetic spectrum. The light waves can resonate in various frequencies, giving us a feeling of color in our eyes.
As we know, digital photography is nothing but a process of converting this light energy into digital information. A computer can then process this information to show us in the form of a digital image.
The basic understanding of light and color is an absolute necessity for someone wanting to capture beautiful-looking images.
In addition, it would help you to master all other aspects of photography, including photo editing.
Frequency and Light Waves
Light is a small portion of electromagnetic waves, and light waves can carry energy and information. The physical property of that energy is determined by its wavelength and frequency, which can change.
Depending on this variable, the electromagnetic wave can vary from visible light to x-ray to radio wave, depending on the wavelength.
The human eye is designed to visualize only a minuscule portion of this wave. The energy contained in the wave reacts with the cells of the retina, known as rods and cones.
Afterward, it creates electrical impulses in our brains, giving us vision and a sense of color. The human eye can see wavelengths ranging from 400 nm to 700 nm, divided into seven waves ranging from violet to red.
Photons
Photons can be described as the block which builds up the light. Photons make light waves; they can carry energy and interact with the surrounding as particles.
An exciting nature of photons is they can remain in both wave and particle form simultaneously. This wave-particle duality is the basis for quantum mechanics. It might seem like it, but neither do photons or light waves carry any type of color.
Instead, the wavelength determines the color which the eye can see.
Pixels
As we know from the last part of the article, the photon can interact with the surrounding. This exact principle is used in building up a camera sensor.
Each sensor is made up of millions of tiny units, also referred to as pixels. When a photon hits a pixel, an electric charge passes through and is stored up inside the pixel.
The computer gets this information and processes them into binary signals.
Basics of Color Theory
After learning about the science behind how light works and how light is captured via the camera sensor, it’s time to move on to something more interesting.
Color theory may seem easy on the surface, but it gets complicated the deeper you get into it. The first thing we need to do to establish a color model before we can learn various parts of the color model.
Color Model
The Red-Green-Blue, or RGB for short, is the most used color model in photography. This wheel represents how we perceive color; it is called the language of color science.
This language is our guideway to understand most of the color theories that will come later on.
The camera sensors use this model of color for producing color information onto their images. An RGB model simply defines the primary color red, green, and blue, which are used for creating all the shades of colors that we can visualize.
Color space or gamut is a more relevant term for photographers. It is a mathematically defined range which a display is capable of showing to us.
There are many color models available these days. The most used color gamut is known as sRGB, which is the standard for web content. Some other color spaces are Adobe RGB, Rec. 709, or Prophoto RGB, etc. Finally, CMYK is a vital color space, as it is used for print media. These color spaces are capable of showing different properties of light, which we’ll be discussing next.
Order of Colors
In the RGB color system, all the colors are differentiated into three specific orders: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Although this category of colors is not as clear-cut as we think, this will act as a fundamental to build upon later.
Photographers use this technique to make their images more visually appealing. The purer color acts as a central part of an image; it can easily attract the viewer’s attention. The secondary and tertiary colors work together with the primary to make a distinct photo.
- Primary Colors: These are pure colors, each representing a separate color receptor in our eyes responds to. In the RGB system, red, green, and blue act as the primary colors.
- Secondary Colors: Secondary colors are created by stimulating two different receptors of the cone. It is achieved by mixing two primary colors to make a new color. Orange, Magenta, or yellow are examples of secondary colors.
- Tertiary Colors: Tertiary colors are also known as intermediate colors. They are achieved by combining 75/25 percent of primary colors. They can also be achieved by mixing primary colors with secondary colors. Turquoise is an excellent example of a tertiary color.
Hue
Hue defines the shade or the name of the color we’re looking for. On an RGB color system, there are around 16 million colors available at your disposal.
The shade of color that is used for a particular part of a subject is called hue. So hue can be anything from red to yellow to Magenta to purple to black and so on.
If we want to get a little more technical, the hue is referred to as the radial position of a color sitting on an RGB wheel. Where the color is sitting on the wheel is determined by the hue.
It can range from 0 to 360 and everything in between these two values.
Luminance
Luminance, also known as the brightness or value of a color, is an essential aspect of color theory. It is the most accessible property of color to understand, as we are all familiar with light and darkness.
Luminance measures how bright or dark a particular hue of color is on the RGB color wheel. Thus, the bright part of the image will have higher luminance, while the darker part will have lower luminance levels.
On an RGB system, luminance determines the level of brightness for a color. The level of luminance can range from 0 to 100. 0 being the absolute black, while 100 is the absolute white. The color of absolute black and white is scarce in images and should be discarded when not necessary.
Saturation
After determining the hue and luminance of a color, you need to assess the intensity of it. The saturation is a property of a color that determines the amount or intensity. Higher saturation of colors will have a higher intensity, while the lower saturations will have a lower intensity. Saturation is used to attract the attention of the viewer with high intensity of color.
The saturation scale goes from 0 to 100, determining the purity or intensity of a given color. The lower the saturation is, the more grayscale the image will look.
Color Harmonies
In this day and age, shooting photos are more accessible than ever, take out your smartphone and click to shoot. But if you’re looking forward to getting a striking image that will look visually pleasing, you need to use color harmonies. For compelling color photography, one must learn about the balancing of colors in an image. Not all colors look good with each other, and only a specific style of color goes with the other one. Color harmonies or schemes achieve this combination.
Complimentary
Complimentary is the most straightforward form of color harmony to understand. For this reason, this is used by all photographers and artists alike. Complimentary colors are found on the opposite sides of the RGB color wheel. Because the colors reside opposite to one another, using them together creates a balance to the photo. The juxtaposition of complementary color creates this contrasty and bold-looking shot which is pleasing to look at.
Some of the most used complementary color pairs are teal and orange, yellow and orange, red and cyan, etc.
Monochromatic
The word monochrome may seem like we’re talking about black and white photography. But monochromatic colors refer to a single hue that is used in variation to its luminance and tones.
When you look at a forest, you’ll get an idea of how monochromatic color harmony works. Every leaf in a forest is green, but none of them are the same as each other. Instead, they all have different shades, different luminance with a slight variation to their tone.
This harmony offers more impactful and contrasting tones that are used to attract the viewer.
As a result, the photo that uses this color scheme has a sense of continuity, coherence that a standard color photo might fail to achieve. The impactful nature of this color scheme tends to dominate the viewer while they can feel in sync with it.
Analogous
An analogous color harmony takes the concept of a monochromatic color scheme and pushes it a bit further. It refers to the color combination of three hues that are adjacent to each other.
We can see the use of this type of color harmony in all kinds of scenery in nature. The colors might have a very similar luminance and saturation for creating this type of harmony. Landscape photographers love this color harmony for its balanced and calming feel.
For getting the best use out of this color harmony, you have to make sure you decide on enough contrast for it.
The best result comes when you choose one color to dominate the whole image, and the second color is used as a support. The third color can be used to provide an extra accent to the image. The third color can also be black, white, or grey, depending on the image.
Triad
After discussing the three primary harmonies that people usually are familiar with, we’ll now get into particular types. The triadic color harmony uses three or more colors from the color wheel.
These colors are spaced evenly from each other, forming a triangle along its way. This color harmony is used for its vibrancy; while you use an unsaturated color palette, the photos might look vibrant because of the color scheme.
The use of triadic color harmony might be tricky to execute; your audience might easily get overwhelmed with the use of color. For a successful use case scenario, you should balance out the color evenly. One of the colors should be selected to dominate the whole image, while the other two will accent the overall composition.
Split-Complementary
Split-complementary is a more elaborate version of complementary color harmony that photographers often used. This type of color harmony is usually found in nature and relatively easy to achieve in photographs.
It used three colors to achieve this; a base color is added for use as the actual color. The two adjacent colors directly opposite to the complementary colors are used. The complimentary is not now used on this harmony, which creates less tension in the image.
One of the downsides of the complementary color harmony is how contrasty and tense it can get. Split complementary can quickly solve this while being accessible to the eye. This type of color scheme is recommended for beginners who are new to photography because this one is hard to mess up.
Tetradic
Tetradic, rectangular, or square color harmonies are achieved using four different colors from the color wheel. For example, when you take two different shades that are color adjacent to each other and then add they’re directly complementary to the composition, you get a rectangular shape on your color wheel.
This rich color harmony can offer a multitude of possibilities in your composition. However, it works the best if you let one color act as the dominant color. The other colors should be used sparingly and low saturation for a cohesive look. The balance might get hard to achieve between the warm and cool colors.
Psychology of Color
Color has quite a significant amount of impact on human psychology. How color affects a human being has been extensively studied and experimented with numerous times.
A good photographer is knowledgeable about how colors shown on his/her image can affect a viewer. The perception of color depends on so many factors like geography, religion, time, season, gender, etc.
So, as a photographer, it is essential to learn about how color affects psychology.
White
- Combination of all the colors in the system
- Symbolizes peacefulness, strength, surrender, etc.
- It can provide us with solid thoughts, enables all new beginnings
- Associated with clean, pure, simple, innocence, etc.
Red
- An emotionally intense color that stimulates energy and enthusiasm
- It stands out very quickly when used in a bit of amount
- Red is associated with love, excitement, anger, passion, confidence, etc.
- It can be very effective when used against dark backgrounds
Magenta
- Related to emotional balance and spirituality
- It looks very similar to pink; females have an attraction to it
- Associated with friendliness, compassion, and invitations
- It should be used sparingly not to overwhelm the viewer
Green
- The color of nature
- It has a natural soothing effect, calms people emotionally
- Associated with life, prosperity, growth, and harmony
- Stimulates various stress-relieving hormones
Black
- Black is the absence of light
- It can make us feel mysterious or scared while evoking a strong sense of possibility
- Associated with elegance, authority, sophistication, and power
- Too much black color can be overwhelming
Blue
- The color of the sky
- Saturated or electric blue can cause exhilaration
- Associated with cold, sadness, space, distance, etc.
- Stimulates the body to produce hormones that induce calmness
Pink
- This color has a very feminine aura
- It contains less intense color than red, young girls are attracted to it
- Associated with tenderness, romanticism, etc.
- Should be used sparingly; excessive use can indicate weakness
Yellow
- The color with the highest luminous levels
- Can help memorization and encourage communication
- Associated with brightness, happiness, optimism, and warmth
- Stimulates various mental activities in the nervous system
Use of Color in Photography
Color is one of the most essential aspects when it comes to photography. A professional photographer has mastered the art of color in their image; they know how to use colors to enhance their appearance. In addition, color can evoke a kind of emotion, which any other media cannot achieve.
While we can’t always control the aspect of the color during the shooting, modern photography has brought many tools to help with that problem. These days, we can use various applications like Photoshop or Lightroom to control every aspect of color in an image to bring out what we want. So in this part of the article, we’re going to talk about how to effectively control the colors in photography.
Color Temperature
Color temperature is an important thing to understand while you’re trying to shoot some photos. This setting alone has the most potential to manipulate the color of your photo as you want.
Color temperature is measured in Kelvin (K), and the temperature ranges from 10000K to 1500K. The warmest color measured in the temperature color is the color of the candlelight, which sits around 1500k. The blue sky falls into the coolest part of the temperature scale sitting around 10000K.
It is important to shoot with the appropriate color temperature considering the different times of the day. According to the photographer, another important tip is to shoot in raw format, as it has the highest capability to change the temperature. Inaccurate color temperature will result in the photo having an unwanted color cast in the image, like blue, yellow, or Magenta.
White Balance
The first thing you need to do to start processing your images is correct the white balance. However, even if you use the correct white balance settings on your camera, you might need to use a little bit of processing to get the most natural-looking image.
The efficient way to do this is by using the camera raw plugin in Photoshop or Lightroom. First, select the eyedropper tool from the toolkit, hover it to part of the image that you’re sure to be grey, black, or white.
Click there with the eyedropper tool still equipped, and you’re going to have an almost perfect white balanced image. You might need to make a little bit of adjustment from the temperature slider on the toolset, but it is a good starting point.
Saturation and Desaturation
Saturating the whole image will give it a vivid look and add extra contrast to the image. It would be best if you used it sparingly, though, as using it additionally will overwhelm the viewer. It will also make the image look very gross if you push the saturation slider too much.
As we’ve learned from different color harmonies, using three colors works best if we use one as the key color on the photo.
Using a single color as the fundamental color will enhance the image on the split complementary or tetradic color scheme. The other colors should have a low level of saturation and brightness for the best effect. You can’t control the saturation level in the shoot, but you can easily do it in post-production.
You can use the hue saturation tool to control each amount of color present in the photo selectively. You can also use a selective mask to mask the subject and other places properly.
Color Grading
For a photographer, color grading is always one of the most exciting things to do while processing the image. Color grading depends on the photographer’s taste, the mood of the scene, the tone you want to present, and whole other things. You’ve discussed before what each color brings to the emotion of the viewer.
There are multiple ways to correctly color grade an image according to the photographer’s taste. Each of the tools comes in a handy and different situation, and there is no right or wrong way of using the tool.
One of the more straightforward tools to use is the Split toning tool found in lightroom or photoshop camera raw. It lets you change the highlight and shadow color from the images and tone them according to what you want. You can use your complimentary color knowledge here to get the best results.
A potent tool that comes in handy in color grading is the curve adjustment. It lets you change every aspect of the histogram according to what you want to achieve with the image.
Practically, if you know how to do it, you can perform the function of every color grading tool with just curves only. It comes in one luminosity and three distinct channels- red, green, and blue.
Recently some new tools have emerged for color grading known as the HSL adjustment and camera profile correction. These are advanced tools that should be used if you’re very knowledgeable about color theory.
But many of the new photographers and cinematographers are using them frequently for cinematic color grading. You can get a surreal color scheme that is impossible to achieve in nature to give your photos a dreamlike quality.
Composition with Color
Photography composition rules determine the positioning, shape, lines of an object to make it look more appealing. When talking about the raw compositional aspect, people often overlook the importance of color.
Like other elements in a photo, color plays a fundamental role in making your image stand out among the crowd. Colors can draw the attention of a viewer to look at a subject.
You can use the abundance of color to tell your own story. You tend to perceive different hues in an image as the other subject. Color can create leading lines in an image; it can also create a juxtaposition of different hues.
You can also change the framing of an object depending on the color, provide negative spacing, create depth, and a whole lot more. Your imagination is your only limit.
Light and Weather in Color Reproduction
Color reproduction depends on the weather and lighting condition more than you think. When you’re looking to shoot under natural light, it is imperative to keep the time of the day in mind.
Afternoon and morning suns provide a warm yellow glow, which makes portraits stand out. Also, the sky looks dramatic during the afternoon because of the sun setting. You can use it to your advantage for producing some beautifully lit shots.
Summertime is usually the time of blue skies and bright warm lights. The leaves during the summertime look alive and green, which provides a soothing vibe to the image.
The outcast sky cast a moody blue tone to the light, which looks good for moody shots. During the winter, nature is filled with white snow, which provides a stark contrast from the subject to the background.
And finally, the warm orange and red of the fall look very soothing with a bright subject.
Observe and experiment with what time of the day and during what season the colors look best. Different times and seasons will provide you with different styles of lighting to work with, so use them to your advantage as much as you can.
Color in an Abstract Image
Abstract photography is a relatively new form of photography that has been gaining popularity in recent times. Abstract photographs are great for delivering that strong sense of emotion and mood to the viewers.
As there is nothing familiar on the photo for the viewer to grab onto, the color becomes the vessel for attention. Colors are the subject; colors are the background, colors are the supporting casts in an abstract image.
You can use different composition ideas along with color harmony for achieving different moods. Different hues will act upon as different tones to guide the viewer. However, don’t use too much color, as it can destroy the spirit you’re trying to go for.
To Sum it Up
We have been talking about different aspects of color in this article. First, we have talked about the science behind how humans perceive different colors. Then, we tried establishing the color system that is used as the language of color. We also talked about various properties of color like hue, luminosity, and saturation. Color harmony is also a critical topic that we covered in this article.
Finally, we tried providing you a practical guide on how to use the color theory effectively in different photographs. It all may seem daunting at first, but keep practicing, and you’ll get used to it very soon. So, if you have read so far in the color theory in photography guide, you have a pretty good foundation now. Good luck, and have fun photographing stuff!
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