Tip of the Week - C is for Color
I thought this week would be a good week to touch on COLOR, because well it starts with C…. and we gotta bring it in here sometime right?!
Color, or lack there of, is very important. Color can create moods, draw out emotions, give a sense of motion, etc., and as storytellers (yes, a photographer is a storyteller) it is our job to convey that story to the best of our ability WITHOUT WORDS. But in order to do this, we have to first understand some basics of color.
First and foremost, bright colors will always jump forward, so if your subject is wearing grey or a neutral (like browns) he/she will get lost against a bright red or blue background.. Ah Ha! Remember background? It is important when it comes to color too!!
There are more times than I can count on one hand, where I have seen a beautiful (or what could have been a beautiful photo) that had been totally ruined by a busy (too many colors) background, OR EVERYTHING was so bright you didn’t know where to look in the picture. This brings us on to, What is the central focus of your photo? The camera is great and if you have all the neat-o gear like lights and filters and gels, but if you don’t have these things, that is where the computer comes in, and that is hopefully the place where I can help you FIX, ADJUST, or RECAPTURE your story.
There are many, many, many pages on the Internet that can give you a color theory (what the individual colors represent or stand for) lesson or two, but my goal is to let you explore color on your own. My personal theory is that color affects people in different ways. For example the color yellow; I know many people who love the color yellow, but I am one of those people who is physically repulsed by large amounts of yellow. Green, is another one of my not so favorite colors, but it has its purposes and FANS! Use color as a way to express your story. Only you know how color effects you, so practice.
*TIP* If it is FALL, the trees are changing colors; reds, yellows, browns…. This will be a good time to test how colors work for you. One day put your child in a red shirt with blue jeans take them out and photograph them against a background of trees with the multitude of colors… does this compliment your child and make a great photo, or does your child get lost in the background? The next day dress them in a blue shirt, and the next day a green shirt, and the next day a white shirt etc… I think you get my point. Then compare these different photos which one “feels” like a better photo?
I guess what I am trying to impart is that color is personal, so use it to make YOU feel like it is a great photo.
So get out there and use colors to tell your story!
Note from Jessica:
Tye wrote this great bit on color and I chose these images to illustrate it. I love colorful images that *pop*! These images do that for me. This first one is of my adorable neighbor. She has beautiful red hair and was wearing a green shirt. The cloudless blue sky behind her really struck me as all the colors came together for me.
This next photo was taken at my neighborhood park. Mag had an orange shirt and is near the entrance to a blue tube slide. I love the orange against the blue. Notice, however how his camouflage pants don’t pop out at all. Yeah, there’s the, “Well duh! It IS camouflage, silly!” thought that might be running through your head right now but it is a great example of colors blending into the background. In this case I like it, it makes the orange pop out against the blue. It doesn’t distract from that pop.
I also have another photo I would like to use to illustrate this point but I just used it last night in the post on the main page. I was debating whether or not I should use it again and I just decided to do it as I typed this. So if you’re tired of this photo, too bad! hehehe 
This is from my recent trip to Arches National Park. My two oldest boys are sitting in the red sand, with a background of red rocks, arches and a touch of blue sky. Uly and Gar are wearing red shirts but they are a different kind of red than the background. I really like how it helps them pop out from the background, yet it isn’t too distracting and you can see the cool colors in the rocks and the blue sky. That’s my kind of vacation photo!
