COLOR IN COMPOSITION

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digital cameras. The core reason is that painters’

primaries are those of reflected light, on paper or
canvas, while the RGB familiar to photographers
are those of transmitted light. The actual red
and blue of each system differ. Comparing the
two sets of primaries is not, in any event, a very
useful exercise, because one deals mainly with the
perceptual effect of color (RYB) while the other
is concerned mainly with the creation of color
digitally and in film. As our purpose here is color
effect, I’ll stick to the painters’ primaries.
Strong hues are perceived in multi-leveled
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ways, with various associations that have as much
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to do with culture and experience as with optical ANDINTHISARRANGEMENTTHERELATIONSHIPSACROSSTHE CYANMAGENTAANDYELLOW LIEDIRECTLYOPPOSITERED
reality. Red is perceived as one of the strongest CIRCLEAREIMPORTANT#OLORSOPPOSITEEACHOTHERARE GREENANDBLUE4HEPAINTER´SPRIMARIESHOWEVER
and densest colors. It tends to advance, so that KNOWNASCOMPLEMENTARIESANDTHESEFORMTHEBASIS DONOTPRODUCESUCHEVENSPOKESWITHVARYING
when in the foreground it enhances the sense of OFTHEPRINCIPLEOFCOLORHARMONY(ERETHECLASSIC DEFINITIONSOFBLUEANDGREEN
depth. It is energetic, vital, earthy, strong, and

# olor adds a completely different dimension

to the organization of a photograph, not
always easy or possible to separate from the other
with in front of the camera tend to be muted in
various ways. The strength of color is determined
mainly by its saturation, and this is one of the
the hue is dark or light. Another way of looking
at this is that saturation and brightness are both
modulations of hue.
warm, even hot. It can connote passion (hot-
bloodedness) and can also suggest aggression
and danger (it is a symbol for warning and
many people have difficulty in judging precisely.
The primary symbolism of blue derives from its
two most widespread occurrences in nature: the sky
associations of green tend toward sickness and
decomposition. We can perceive more varieties
of green, between yellow on the one hand and
dynamics that we have been looking at. The ways three parameters in the color model that is most Color effects naturally work most strongly prohibition). It has temperature associations, and water. Thus, airiness, coolness, wetness are all blue on the other, than any other color.
in which we sense and judge color are in any case useful for our purposes. One of the side benefits when the colors involved are intense, and the and is commonly used as the symbol for heat. possible associations. Photographically, it is one of Violet is an elusive and rare color, both to
complex, from the optical to the emotional, and of digital photography is that post-production examples shown on the next few pages favor these Yellow is the brightest of all colors, and the easiest colors to find, because of sky reflections. find and capture, and to reproduce accurately. It
the general subject of color in photography is, like in Photoshop and similar applications has made for clarity. Hue is the essence of color, and in its does not even exist in a dark form. Expressively, The secondary colors that are complementary is easily confused with purple. Violet has rich and
color in art, a huge one. My earlier book, Color, most of us familiar with the technical language of simplest representation, the hues are arranged it is vigorous, sharp, and insistent, sometimes to these primaries are green (opposite red on sumptuous associations, and also those of mystery
in the Digital Photography Expert series, goes into color. The three most widely used parameters, or in a circle. In the centuries of thought that aggressive, sometimes cheerful. It has obvious the color wheel), violet (opposite yellow), and and immensity. The similar color purple has
much more detail than is possible here, including axes, of color are hue, saturation, and brightness. have gone into color in art, the idea of primary associations with the sun and other sources of orange (opposite blue). Green is the first and religious, regal, and superstitious connotations.
color theory and management (see bibliography). Hue is the quality that gives each color its name, colors has been central, and general opinion has light, and especially against a dark background foremost color of nature, and its associations and Orange borrows from red on the one side and
The critical color issue before us in these pages is and is what most people mean when they use the settled on three—red, yellow, and blue—known appears to radiate light itself. symbolism, usually positive, come principally yellow on the other. It is warm, strong, brilliant,
how it can affect a photograph’s composition. word “color.” Blue, yellow, and green, for example, as painters’ primaries (refined to CMY(K) by Blue recedes more than yellow, and tends to from this. Plants are green, and so it is the color of and powerful, at least when pure. It is the color
We’ll begin with strong colors, because the are all hues. Saturation is the intensity or purity printers). These obviously do not square with be quiet, relatively dark, and distinctly cool. It has growth; by extension it carries suggestions of hope of fire and of late afternoon sunlight. It has
effects and relationships work most strongly with of hue, with the minimum being a completely the three primaries—red, green, and blue—that a transparency that contrasts with red’s opacity. and progress. For the same reasons, yellow-green associations of festivity and celebration, but also
these, although the broad range of colors met neutral gray, and brightness determines whether are used in color film, computer monitors, and It also appears in many forms, and is a color that has spring-like associations of youth. Negative of heat and dryness.

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