COLOR for Photography

Color theory can be a helpful thing to keep in mind when planning your photo sessions.

You can coordinate backdrops, wardrobe and props to correspond with color schemes that make your images more striking and as visually interesting as possible.

When considering color, two things to consider are color harmony, and color context.

Color harmony is how well two colors go together, and to arrive at this it is helpful to look at complementary and analogous colors. Complementary colors are those at opposite ends of the color wheel, while analogous colors sit next to each other on the color wheel.

Complementary colors include blue-orange, purple-yellow and red-green, while analogous colors include red-orange-yellow.

When people talk about “monochrome” looks, they’re often talking about analogous color schemes.

Color context refers to how well colors look when put next to each other in an image. For example, a small red subject on an orange background will stand out less than it would against a green background.

Below I’ll share a few personal examples of photos where I feel like the color scheme is helping drive the image. What are some ways you’ve experimented with color in your photography? Drop examples in the comments!

You can mix color and black & white for a cool effect!

A lot of brands use tried and true color combos, like 711's red, orange and green. In this photo I especially like how these colors play with the yellow of the cab.

Green and orange can play nicely together!

Blue and green are analogous, which I think worked well with this shot!

Another example of analogous green and blue working together!