How to use color effectively in photography?
In photography, the use of colors can help create a compelling story that will make an impression on viewers. A few ways to use color effectively in photography include creating harmony using complementary colors, making contrasts, highlighting dominant colors and more.
Create harmony
Creating harmony with complementary colors is one of the ways to effectively use color in photography. Using a color wheel as a guide, complementary colors usually comprise one warm color and one cool color such as blue and orange, red and green etc. Highlighting these colors in your photos could create a pleasing effect that makes your photo stand out.
Play around with unlikely color combinations
On the contrary, using colors that go against each other could also elevate your subject or create a striking or intriguing image. This includes combinations of colors that are all bright/loud like red and yellow, green and purple, or specific tones that are traditionally considered to clash.
Highlighting a color
The contrast in color hues can also play a role in putting focus on a particular subject, such as using a more vibrant color for the main focus compared to a muted background.
This includes using pops of color that stand out in your photograph, typically something bright like red, pink, orange or yellow against a cooler background.
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