Search Results for: color theory

Creative Applications of Color Theory in Landscape Photography

Discussions of many photography topics have the potential to veer deep into complex technical territory that may appeal more to scientists than to artists, and color theory is certainly one of those topics that can become rather arcane quite easily. What follows is a guide for landscape photographers who are more artistically inclined, those who are primarily interested in applying color theory to achieve creative goals.

A Comprehensive Color Theory Guide for Photographers

We talk about composition a lot, but have you ever really dived into the subject of color theory and thought about how it applies to your photography? If you haven't, you should... and arguably the best place to start is this incredibly comprehensive demo by landscape photographer Dave Morrow.

Exploring the World of Color Theory with a 3D Modeling Program

From time to time I post plots of color gamuts like the one above. Each time, I get emails asking how I make them, leading me to assume that the world's thirst for color nerdiness is going unquenched. I'm setting out to fix that in this post.

Complementary Colors in Photography

Photography, as the name suggests, is the process of creating images with light. But if you use only light, the entire image will be pure white (or any other color). So we also need the absence of light, or shadows, to create and showcase what we want. It's the interplay between light and shadows that creates the final image.

The Basics of Color Gels in Photography

The use of strong and complementary colors is an ever-growing trend in photography. Many modern advertising campaigns feature bold and contrasting colors in order to draw your focus to the product or message they are trying to sell. One way to create such vibrant color in your own images is by using colored gels (also known as color filters, filter gels, lighting gels, or simply gels).

The Canon EOS R5 Produces Better Color than Medium Format Cameras

I was recently comparing the Canon EOS R5 (with the Canon RF 85mm f/1.2) to the Hasselblad X1D II (with the Hasselblad 80mm f/1.9). Initially we were aiming to focus primarily on the lenses, but during the comparison, we noticed that Canon was producing fantastic images, and this was predominantly due to the colors.

Are You Still Chasing ‘Perfect’ Color?

It's my belief that color is actually one of the most subjective elements that we as humans all understand, yet we actually have no real way of enforcing or translating it to one another.

A Sketch History of Early Color Photography

I ran across yet another case of Holy Cow Look At These Russian Photos, in which the photographs of Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky were showcased. In 1902, Prokudin-Gorsky learned the method of shooting three negatives (color separations) and then projecting them in registration through filters to produce projected color images.

Infinite Color: I Created a Smart Color Grading Tool for Photoshop

Working as a retoucher, one of the hardest parts of my job wasn’t even the cleanup work that an image typically requires, it was the color grading. Applying a specific look to an image to really enhance or create a mood that meets the client’s vision was either doable or really hard. There was never a time when it was completely easy, even for me.

How to Color Your Photos Using the HSL Tool in Lightroom

Today, it's becoming increasingly harder for your style as a photographer to become recognized. Of course, there are prolific photographers such as William Eggleston and Stephen Shore whose use of color is almost instantly recognizable.

A Brief History of Color Photography

When photographing the world around us, the property of color is likely something most people tend to take for granted. We expect our cameras to portray the visible light spectrum accurately. However, in a world so engrossed with color, we sometimes forget how long it took to get to this point in time and how many photographers and scientists viewed the concept of color photography as a pipe dream.

Video: A Primer on Color Spaces and Having a Color-Managed Photo Workflow

For some photographers, no term strikes more fear into one’s heart than "Color Spaces." The idea that different devices, along with our eyes, perceive light differently can seem confusing. Anyone that has gone to print one of their photographs probably knows that it can take some know-how to ensure your images are correctly represented on paper.

If you're new to the world of color theory, photographer Forrest Tanaka wants to help: in the 13-minute video above, he explains color spaces in an easy-to-understand way.

Photo Series Illustrates Crayon Colors by Using the Objects They’re Named After

Crayola Crayons -- the tools with which many a toddler has decorated many a refrigerator door -- all have interesting real-world names. Some strange colors like 'Flesh' have been understandably renamed. But many equally interesting colors have remained staples in the coloring world, and it's these colors that photographer Daniel Seung Lee and art director Dawn Kim set out to capture in their collaborative series Crayola Theory.

The Helsinki Bus Station Theory: Finding Your Own Vision in Photography

We are in the midst of sea change -- a tidal wave might be more accurate -- within the medium of photography. While the lens is still firmly fixed to the camera body, the body itself appears to have imploded. The inner workings -- that is, the guts of the camera from Talbot’s days (when cameras were called “mousetraps” by his wife who was always tripping over them) -- have changed faster than anyone expected.

Movie Posters Show Our Changing Color Bias Over the Years

Software engineer Vijay Pandurangan had a theory, that turned into an experiment, that ultimately turned into some pretty interesting results. His theory was that over the years our color bias, specifically where movie posters are concerned, has gone more dark and blue. To test this he analyzed 35,000 posters from 1914 to present day and came up with the visual representation pictured above.

Color Photography Turns 150 Years Old

Color photography was born on this day 150 years ago in 1861 when Scottish physicist and mathematician James Clerk Maxwell and photographer Thomas Sutton -- inventor of the SLR camera -- shot the above photograph of a colored ribbon.

8 Ways Storytelling Can Improve Your Photos and Videos

Photography and filmmaking wasn’t always a part of Kane Andrade’s career path. The San Francisco Bay Area native and Adobe Lightroom Ambassador originally was interested in animation before joining the military. That military experience would wound up changing the course of his life and ignited the flame that inspired him to tell the seldom heard stories of those within his community.

Sapna Reddy: Full-Time Physician and Pro Landscape Photographer

There are many passionate and talented photographers who wonder whether they should quit their full-time job to pursue photography professionally. Sapna Reddy is a photographer who proves you don't need to -- she has dual careers as both a full-time physician as well as a professional landscape photographer.

10 Best Free Online Photography Courses in 2024

With every year that goes past, photography becomes more and more accessible to the average person. Compared to even a decade ago, even the most basic cameras – including those on your smartphone – produce excellent images. Moreover, you can find plenty of free resources and classes that give you all the information you need to succeed.

Tips-for-Better-Product-Photographs

5 Tips for Shooting Better Product Photos

Product photography can be one of the most overlooked, and yet, most valuable genres of the craft for a creative. While many feel product photos just mean placing an object on a table and snapping a quick photo, it is actually much more complex and requires the right equipment, space, lighting, and most importantly, the vision to produce breathtaking images that will make a view interested in purchasing the product.

5 Things Photographers Can Learn from Cinematic Lighting

One of the bigger personal projects I’ve been working on recently is my Cinematic Studio Lighting course. During the process of writing the accompanying notes and shooting promotional images for the event, I’ve done a ton of research on how cinematographers and directors of photography work, think, and plan their shots.