Welcome to our P52! This project is designed to get you out with your camera once a week in a meaningful way. Each week I will post a prompt for you to consider. The prompts are merely suggestions, and you are free to shoot off topic if you wish. All images posted must be taken by you, be safe for work, and be taken with this project in mind. Please do not post archive photos. For a further discussion of the guidelines, please refer to this thread, and you can find the previous weeks linked there if you missed them. Feel free to join in at any time of the year, and you may go back to missed weeks if you still wish to participate.
Week 48 | Color Theory
This week we are going to focus on color theory. I’ll be honest and admit that it is not one of my stronger suits when composing an image. I was not a mom who typically coordinated outfits for images (other than holiday photos) and I don’t do a lot of color changing in post. However, understanding and implementing color theory into your images can be a powerful compositional technique.
The primary types of color theory are Monochromatic, Complementary, Analogous, and Tertiary. I will link to an article with a few others that are more advanced if you would like more information. Color theory is based on the color wheel, a mechanism for blending primary and secondary colors and otherwise describing the relationship among different colors.
Monochromatic images have one dominant main color, with no support from a color outside the main color, other than perhaps a bit of neutral. However, you can have varying shades of one color throughout the image. Please keep in mind that for this week, monochromatic should include images with color and not just a black and white conversion (although if you find a natural scene that is shades of black and white that is acceptable).
Complementary images will have two main colors which are opposite of each other on the color wheel. Christmas features red and green together, which are complements. Many movies use an orange and teal color grading for specific mood effects (highlights are a warm orange shade and shadows will tend to a cool teal shade). Don’t be too fussed if you can’t find exact opposites; I often use orange and green together, which aren’t technically opposite, but are too far apart to be considered adjacent colors.
The last main group I will show is Analogous. Analogous colors are a group of three colors which are all adjacent to each other on the color wheel. Many sunsets/sunrises, autumn leaves, and water locations will feature analogous colors.
A bonus category for you to look for or set up is the rainbow category. Although not a true technical color theory grouping, who doesn’t like everything in rainbow order?
I find that canva.com offers a great tool where you can input a specific color and Canva will produce various color palettes for you. This is a great way to experiment to find color groups before you look for scenes to photograph. And this article from 500px talks a bit more about some of the more advanced theories if you would like to delve even further.
One last thing to consider is that if you have learned about color theory from a fine arts background, painters and artists use different color wheels. Painting is additive - you layer more and more color into white to create a deeper color. Photography, using a monitor comprised of light, is subtractive - we remove light to create darker colors. You may use either type of color wheel when composing your images, as many photographers will use color theory to set up their images before shooting.
Week 48 | Color Theory
This week we are going to focus on color theory. I’ll be honest and admit that it is not one of my stronger suits when composing an image. I was not a mom who typically coordinated outfits for images (other than holiday photos) and I don’t do a lot of color changing in post. However, understanding and implementing color theory into your images can be a powerful compositional technique.
The primary types of color theory are Monochromatic, Complementary, Analogous, and Tertiary. I will link to an article with a few others that are more advanced if you would like more information. Color theory is based on the color wheel, a mechanism for blending primary and secondary colors and otherwise describing the relationship among different colors.
Monochromatic images have one dominant main color, with no support from a color outside the main color, other than perhaps a bit of neutral. However, you can have varying shades of one color throughout the image. Please keep in mind that for this week, monochromatic should include images with color and not just a black and white conversion (although if you find a natural scene that is shades of black and white that is acceptable).
Complementary images will have two main colors which are opposite of each other on the color wheel. Christmas features red and green together, which are complements. Many movies use an orange and teal color grading for specific mood effects (highlights are a warm orange shade and shadows will tend to a cool teal shade). Don’t be too fussed if you can’t find exact opposites; I often use orange and green together, which aren’t technically opposite, but are too far apart to be considered adjacent colors.
The last main group I will show is Analogous. Analogous colors are a group of three colors which are all adjacent to each other on the color wheel. Many sunsets/sunrises, autumn leaves, and water locations will feature analogous colors.
A bonus category for you to look for or set up is the rainbow category. Although not a true technical color theory grouping, who doesn’t like everything in rainbow order?
I find that canva.com offers a great tool where you can input a specific color and Canva will produce various color palettes for you. This is a great way to experiment to find color groups before you look for scenes to photograph. And this article from 500px talks a bit more about some of the more advanced theories if you would like to delve even further.
One last thing to consider is that if you have learned about color theory from a fine arts background, painters and artists use different color wheels. Painting is additive - you layer more and more color into white to create a deeper color. Photography, using a monitor comprised of light, is subtractive - we remove light to create darker colors. You may use either type of color wheel when composing your images, as many photographers will use color theory to set up their images before shooting.
