Color Vision 5

Color Exercises

Let's take a brief break from the tips and techniques of the Color Vision series to do some color exercises you might like to try as a way to exercise your visual muscle. My suggestion is to first look for scenes or past images that fulfill these exercises, and of course use them to compose when you photograph now to see how they work.

 This hand tinted fall scene, adding pastels to embolden the print, was made along the Chama River in New Mexico and shows how color offsets, here the warm colors of the foliage set against the distant mountain and sky, create a feeling of distance and space within the frame.

*Look for complementary colors to offset dominant colors (those that take up most of the scene) or subjects with those colors.

*When shooting in color cast conditions (sunrise/sunset, fog, snow etc) look for offset and accent colors, such as warmer colors with an overcast sky or cooler colors when the sky turns warmer late in the afternoon.

*When working in color "families", look for complementary colors as accents.

While this scene would be characterized as "cool" in overall color cast, the red accent on the life preserver holder on the pole is a complementary color accent that catches the eye. 

*Create a color “shimmer” with equally valued complementary colors.

*Use exposure techniques to change color intensity--overexpose for paler colors; underexpose slightly for increased saturation. When shooting monochrome color scenes, vary exposure plus and minus by1 stop to explore color contrast effects.

*In a distant landscape, cool colors say "distance". Create scale and perspective with complementary colors in the foreground.

*If a foreground subject has a dark color, and the background is dark, seek complementary colors to increase contrast. The same holds true for a light foreground and background.

Photographed right after sundown under an overcast sky, a blue color cast dominates, but is offset by the complementary yellow of the building lights. Note how the lighter hue of blue in the building details offsets against the darker sky.

*A bright color will always dominate a more muted color. Use of complementary relationships will increase the visual energy of the background.

*Explore monochrome effects in different hues.

*In a scene with a family of colors, compose so that one hue dominates the frame, allowing the other hues to play supporting roles. 

Next in the series: How the eye and the camera "see" differently: color recording, color temperature and more.