COLORS
Primary colors are
red, green, and blue.
Secondary colors are
orange, green, violet,
while CMYK refers to
cyan, magenta, yellow,
black.
For photographers, color
is a tool. To make our
pictures better we need
to be aware of how colors
affect our audience, not
necessarily why. Because
of how our eyes receive
light waves, warm colors
tend to stand out from
the background while
cool colors recede. Or
more obviously, bright colors attract attention whereas dark colors are largely
ignored.
YELLOW
This is the brightest and most visible of colors. A person surrounded by yellow
feels optimistic. In the West, yellow is often associated with cowardice and
treachery but in China yellow is a noble color. Indicates the sun. Light. Air.
Royalty.
Armed with the right light and right colors, you can do almost anything in
photography. You can create your own reality or fantasy. You can highlight what you
see or hide what you don’t want others to see.
Colors have psychological effects on people so we can draw their attention in the
direction we want them to look or dramatically affect their mood. They have cultural
attachments also. Therefore what a color means in one country can induce entirely
different behaviors in another.
Using many colors can be distracting. Because there are so many colors it can be
a balancing act to use them effectively and judiciously in a good photograph. On
the other hand, being monochromatic can be clever or abstract. Color choices are
so subjective and personal. “The science of color must be regarded as essentially a
mental science.”
10| PicsArt Monthly