Every day when you get dressed, you have to deal with color combinations (or not; some of you just don’t care…). But do you actively consider and use color, for its own sake in your photography?
When I think of photos where the color was noticeably, attention-grabbingly fine, I think of Meyerowitz, and Shore, but most of all, I think of Harry Callahan’s color work. I think he makes color the primary interest in his (color) pictures — ahead of object, line and subject matter — more than other photographer that I have seen. Unfortunately, the examples of his color stuff that I can find on the Internet don’t demonstrate this; if you have seen it, or can get it, I highly recommend “Harry Callahan: Color 1941-1980″.*
The most elementary color theory is well and simply stated by Johannes Itten’s works such as “The Elements of Color”. He goes over the basics of the different appearance of colors according to what they are next to.
Complementary colors boost each other when placed in the same picture. The most commonly used complementary colors are blue/orange. Think of TV and magazine commercials where this color boost (with its added contrast of hot/cold) is used to death.
When complementary colors are out of balance, the smaller one will appear to gain brilliance (even though it is still the same color as in the previous).
I believe most photographers simply deal with color as they find it rather than actively or consciously building an image around color theory. One of the cool things about making composite images is that you have the option of making deliberate color choices about what you include. Because my background is in black and white photography — and I am not exactly a fashion wizard in how I dress — my efforts with using color in my composites are mostly negative. I know what I don’t like, such as the orange-brown wren and the red-orange cardinal shown below. The multiple bird series that I do force me to think about and deal with color. I’m learning to like it, but it’s new ground for me.
[Edited to note: now that I'm looking at the cardinal and the wren, I kind of like them together. Sigh. I have so much stuff to figure out.]
*A nice quote Callahan quote from the Color book: “There are some guys who don’t think I understand what I’ve done. The odd thing is, I’ve done it. If you know what you’re searching and looking for, you know what you’re doing.”
