Exploiting colour

Inject life, passion and impact into your photos

Colour is everywhere and it’s how you use the myriad hues and shades that determine whether your pictures succeed or not. Being a good colour photographer means exploiting this incredible palette and using the many techniques at your disposal to get the look you want. There is no right or wrong here; it’s about using colour for the best result.

Use colour for impact

Complementary or contrasting colours give impact while analogous colours (similar hues) are more harmonious. You can check out the relationships between dierent hues using a colour wheel – just do a web search for an example. You can use colours to convey mood. Reds, oranges and yellows give the feeling of warmth, passion and energy; greens are calm and natural while shades of blue imply serenity and coolness.

Shoot a project

Make a photo project of your favourite colour: it will sharpen your vision as you’re walking around with the camera. Use a zoom to get in close for tightly framed shots so your chosen colour dominates the shot with minimal distractions.

Deliberate blur

Use slow shutter speeds and deliberately move the camera or zoom the lens for striking abstracts. Shooting intentional camera movement (ICM) is fun and the results can be eye-catching. Try it with moving vehicles, rows of Šowers, lines of trees or scenics. There are no rules but if the result pleases you, then you've done a good job.

Style it out

Match the camera’s picture style or subject mode to what you’re shooting. Settings, such as portrait and landscape styles, are applied to in-camera jpegs. These can be customised further and saved as a preset for future use.

Get the individual look

If you feel that your pictures lack impact, it might be because how you are using colour is not distinctive enough. It can be as simple as underexposing for a little more richness and intensity, using a warmer white balance for more welcoming photos or shooting more blue images for a more moody look.

Keep it simple

Cramming too much colour into a composition can lead to confusion and over-fussy pictures where the viewer’s eye has nothing to settle on. A good adage is ‘keep it simple’.

Calibrate your monitor

As your photographic skills develop, your workŠow must keep pace. This means making sure the monitor is correctly calibrated and using the right ICC pro le if you are making prints.

Get framing right Boldly coloured sunlit scenes can make for powerful compositions but frame your shots tightly so you don't dilute the image’s impact. Consider scale In urban scenes such as this, include human interest to add a sense of scale as well as context. Use a polariser A polarising lter can cut down glare to give richer, solid and even more intense colours. The polariser won’t work on every scene but it can be eective in suitable conditions.