Color is amazing. The effects of color are rich. Color touches us on a deeper level by directly evoking an emotional response. You have the power to change the mood of a photograph, simply by changing the color.

Each color has it’s own visual weight and feeling, for instance:

Yellow: is easily one of the brightest of colors, it’s aggressive and vigorous, but also warm and happy. It’s extremely dominant because of it’s vibrancy.

Red: is bold, energetic, gives the impression of power and vitality, but also danger. In some cultures it can even mean good luck.

Blue: is quiet and calm, but also cool and cold. It’s meditative, and thus, often lonely feeling. It often dominates other cool colors, but is usually submissive to warmer colors.

Green: gives the feeling of growth, hope and youthfulness.

Purple: has a sense of mystery and spirituality. It’s often associated with royalty.

Orange: conveys heat and energy, basically: fire.

The idea of color management is sort of a misnomer, as we don’t always have control over the colors in our scene. We do, however, have control over which is emphasized by the way we arrange our photos composition, the vantage point from which we take the photo and the lens choice. Each color has a visual weight and that can help or detract from the photo. For instance, red is “heavier” than blue, but pink is lighter than red. Using a contrast of cool and warm colors we can provide a harmony within the scene.

Journaled Time: 3 hour – reading, research and taking notes
Total Class Time: 40 hours