How To Use Colour Effectively To Enhance Your Digital Photography

Digital photography has a lot of fantastic opportunities. When I say “opportunities” I mean artistic opportunities. You see succeeding in digital photography goes way beyond just knowing how to take a digital photograph in the technical sense. You see need artistic ability and knowledge too. Digital Photography, if applied artistically, can open up the doors of creativity for many, many years to come.

The first thing I recommend to start with if you are a serious digital photography enthusiast is to understand how colour works. When you understand how colour works in digital photography you can then use different colours to create very different feelings and emotions in the photo itself.

Colours such as blues, greens, mauves, etc are introverted colours and can often give your photo different feel to reds and yellows. For example think of a field of green with a tree that has purple flowers. It tends to represent, and even induce, feelings of tranquillity and calm. These, in digital photography, are regarded as introverted colours.

Colour such as yellows, red, oranges and pinks can often instil an energetic feeling. For example think of fruit such as red berries, oranges or cantaloupe. These are simple examples, but think of the feelings that these colours create in your digital photography.

This is another reason why not all things look as good in black and white, and why some things in fact do look better in black and white. (More about that another time. For now lets focus on creating colour that enhances your digital photography. )

In a very simple sense if you want to create a sense of stillness and calm in your digital photography then aim for subjects that have these colours. And the same goes the other way too. If you want to have a bright energetic feeling, then go for colours that are warm.

Contrasting colours in digital photography work very well too. Primary colours together such as blue and yellow seem to look great side by side, or one as a back ground and the other as a main subject. For example I took a photo on a beach with a bright yellow sign against a blue sky and a blue ocean. It gave the feeling of energy as well as having the calmness of the blue. Being a contrasting primary colour the yellow was not absorbed by the blue, it was the opposite. The yellow sat nicely against the blue as the focal subject.

When doing digital photography, think about the colours you are creating in your photo. Try to aim for digital photos that have colours that look good together, and do not clash like hot pink and bright red next to each other for example. If you want extrovert bold colour in your digital photo, don’t overcrowd the viewer with too many bold colours. In digital photography it works best if you have the main subject having the bold colour, rather than multiple points of bold colour in the background for example.

Choose good digital photography subjects with simple composition that have colours that work well to compliment each other. And remember digital photography is all about creating a feeling. And working your colours together well will enhance your digital photography images ten fold.

If you want to learn more about working with colour effective in digital photography, just go to www.digitalphotographysuccess.com

Best wishes,

Amy Renfrey