Composition with Colour

[TimIngmire]

One of things I've been thiking about recently is around the colours in the waters around us. For wide angle photography in blue water there are certain colour schemes that work very well - that is why you so often see diver shots where the model is clad in a wetsuit with yellow highlights or photos of red soft corals against a blue background.

So what are the combinations of colour that work well if you assume that the background colour is going to to be green?

I've been searching around the web for Colour Theory and Landscape Photography and Design and there is some interesting stuff out there. I'll post stuff here as I find it.

Any thoughts?

Tim

[johnny boy]

Who's been reading Martin Edge's new book then?

[TimIngmire]

Yeah, that was a while ago. I actually keep it next to my bedside to see what Martin says on a subject as I think about things.

I've come across a few interesting articles and all say pretty much the same thing without really adding anything new.

The three key ideas are:

1. Contrast: Choose a contrasting colour ie. sits opposite your main colour on the colour wheel. For a Green Background, a contrasting subject would be red.
2. Harmonising: These are colours that sit equidistanr around the colour wheel. Again, for Green Background, Harmonising colours would be Orange and Violet.
3. Adjacent: These are the colours next to each other on the colour wheel. For green this would be Yellow Green and Blue Green.

So lots of opportunities to match the subject colours with the green background.

The difficult part is to now go and prove it.

Tim

[Mark Davies]

Originally Posted by TimIngmire

I actually keep it next to my bedside to see what Martin says on a subject as I think about things.

It's a wonder you've managed to father three kids!

[Ding]

Originally Posted by TimIngmire

Yeah, that was a while ago. I actually keep it next to my bedside to see what Martin says on a subject as I think about things.

I've come across a few interesting articles and all say pretty much the same thing without really adding anything new.

The three key ideas are:

1. Contrast: Choose a contrasting colour ie. sits opposite your main colour on the colour wheel. For a Green Background, a contrasting subject would be red.
2. Harmonising: These are colours that sit equidistanr around the colour wheel. Again, for Green Background, Harmonising colours would be Orange and Violet.
3. Adjacent: These are the colours next to each other on the colour wheel. For green this would be Yellow Green and Blue Green.

So lots of opportunities to match the subject colours with the green background.

The difficult part is to now go and prove it.

Tim

Hi TimIngmire
I'm doing an adobe photoshop course just now and It goes into what you have just said, the colour wheel. Its interesting for me because as an engineer I usually didn't care about the colour as long as it worked. Now I'm having to learn from the basics.

[TimIngmire]

Hi Ding,
Any tips you can pass on?

Tim

[Ding]

Opposite colours
Blue---Yellow red-----cyan green-----magenta
In Adobe CS2 if u use the variations command which is a great colour command By adding say blue you reduce yellow as above. So if you have to much green you add magenta

In Adobe The command is in Image - adjustments - vatiations

[Mattdiver]

Originally Posted by TimIngmire

1. Contrast: Choose a contrasting colour ie. sits opposite your main colour on the colour wheel. For a Green Background, a contrasting subject would be red.
2. Harmonising: These are colours that sit equidistanr around the colour wheel. Again, for Green Background, Harmonising colours would be Orange and Violet.
3. Adjacent: These are the colours next to each other on the colour wheel. For green this would be Yellow Green and Blue Green.

So lots of opportunities to match the subject colours with the green background.

The difficult part is to now go and prove it.

Here's one taken near Sydney that illustrates the concepts you put forward:

[TimIngmire]

One picture encompassing all the points - Nice one Mat.