The technique of using complementary colours is nothing new; artists have used it for a long time. It's not, however, something we tend to think about when we go out shooting. While we don't always have the freedom to simply pick and choose colours in the scene like a painter can, it’s a good thing to have in your mind as you go about shooting as it can help you to seek out or create scenes with specific colour combinations that work better than others.
First, let's take a look at what lies behind the idea.
Defining complementary colours
Complementary colours work on the principle of colour opposites, these being found within a colour model of some sort.
A colour opposite to a primary colour is formed through a combination of the other two primaries within that model (which creates a secondary colour). Colours that sit opposite each other on a colour wheel of some kind are described as complementary, and using them together provides a contrast that makes them more powerful in images.
RGB Colour Wheel
So, using the red-green-blue colour model, if you take away red you’re left with cyan, as this is what blue and green creates when combined.
Likewise, if you take away green you get magenta, while a complete absence of blue leaves yellow. Cyan, magenta and yellow are therefore the complementary colours to red, green and blue respectively.
Primary colour
Secondary colour combination
Secondary colour
Red
Green + Blue
Cyan
Green
Red + Blue
Magenta
Blue
Red + Green
Yellow
In the red-yellow-blue colour model, it looks as follows:
Primary colour
Secondary colour combination
Secondary colour
Red
Yellow + Blue
Green
Yellow
Red + Blue
Purple
Blue
Red + Yellow
Orange
Putting it into practice
Thinking about what kinds of colours we tend to associate with different situations can make you start to put different combinations together for effect.
For example, blue doesn't appear in nature too often, which explains why chefs wear blue-coloured plasters. On a clear day, however, you have the sky as an effective backdrop for any complementary colours.
In the RGB colour model we see that yellow is opposite blue, while on the RYB colour model it is orange. So, something yellow or orange that appears against a blue sky is potentially worth trying – like this:
Conversely, green appears abundantly in nature, which makes red, magenta and purple subjects good candidates for contrast. Of course, there’s no single shade of green, so there is no one specific shade of red that is ideal in all situations.
It follows then, than subjects that naturally have red and green details work particularly well on their own as they don't necessarily need anything else to contrast against them for effect.
Obviously if you shoot indoors, potentially constructing your images with different backgrounds, you can bear this principle in mind when setting up your shots, and/or later on when editing.
In the image below, for example, the bowl and background around the peaches were fairly neutral in reality but editing was used to given them a blue tinge, which provides better contrast with the fruit.
You may find yourself in a situation where the hues in different elements in the image seem to fall in line with the principle of combining complementary colours, but you still feel something is missing that give it more bite.
There’s a good chance that one of the key colours may benefit from being made more intense, toned down, lightened or darkened and so on, so in such a situation, consider a few tweaks to hue, saturation and lightness sliders in the editing program of your choice.
By giving you control over separate hues, you can adjust these in turn (or simply the one you feel the need to adjust) to create the best balance.
. digitalrev.com
2017-5-8 03:00