Color Theory (Photography)

Color Theory

and Light

Link

Vocabulary

White Balance, Golden hour, diffuser, even lighting, film noire, contrast, direct light, indirect light.

White Balance

Most lights, natural or manmade, carry a color tint

that influences your photographs.

Blue: Daylight (Just before Sunrise/Sunset,Winter, Shadows, Some Street

Lamps.Antoinette

Yellow: Daylight (Sunrise/Sunset), Household Lamps, Some Street Lights, Halogen Lamps

Colpo

Cole

Green: Daylight (Fog), Fluorescent Lights, Some Street Lights

Petruney

Pink: More street lights

Favim

White: Flash Unit, Daylight balanced Halogen Lamps

Bell

Purkinje Effect:

● In the daytime, the rods and cones in your eye pick up more on the reds and other warm colors.

● As night time sets in, this reverses. Greens and Blues become dominant.

Why should you care?

Color can make the viewer

want to keep

looking at your image.

Petrarulo

Petrarulo

Or flip to the next one.

Color impactsMood and Emotion

WarmthExcitement

Passion

In excess: Agitating

Red

Benson

Emert

CalmnessWith a tint a sadness

Power, in coupling with Black

Blue

Staab

Draws attentionCompliments White, and

other light shaded color tones well.

In excess, irritating.

Yellow

Kallistine

McFadden

The blue in it edges the color towardssadness.

The red in it can provide a "cooler" sense of warmth, passion, etc.

Purple

Petrarulo

Tranquil, vibrant.

Used often in advertisement.

Pairs well with yellow.

Green

A., Wolfgang and Sons (dot) com

Erdene

Yellow in it brings excitementRed in it brings warmth

The Golden Hour, our best time for natural lighting, brings pinks, oranges, are reds together. This makes everything you shoot feel very warm,

vibrant, and glowing.

Oranges and Reds can also cause fear and dread.

Orange

Emert

A., Wolfgang and Sons (dot) com

For further color consideration:

Taking color theory to a different level.