[Part seven of the Photography Fundamentals series, be sure to check out all 10 posts!]
Shooting in color and controlling your color palette are ridiculously hard.
Unless you’re in a studio with an art director choosing the set color and dressing for everyone and everything in your scene, 90% of the color palette of your image is out of your control. That’s why so many photographers shoot black and white all the time. With B/W pictures, you don’t have to worry about whether what your subject is wearing clashes ridiculously with your background.
Don’t give up too soon though. Keep a few things in mind and you can avoid most of the problems that would lead you to a preemptive “Command-U” in your editing software. Before you go black and white, try the following techniques.
Look for Complementary Colors
Every color has a perfect match. Well really it’s not that simple but the human eye tends to find color opposites (on the color wheel) pleasing. Black and white, blue and orange, yellow and violet, green and magenta; for some reason we like to see opposite colors grouped together.
It should be noted that this is definitely not a hard and fast rule. You can compose an image with complementary colors and have it look horrible. But keeping the relationships between colors in mind can help you control your color palette in your shots.
The most important factor is skin tone. All human skin (and I do mean all) is universally a pinkish orange color when it’s rendered into 0s and 1s and it’s color complement is a teal-y blue. If you’re taking pictures of people, getting some teal-y blue in the image almost never hurts.
Personally I like my teal-y blue a little grey, but it’s a matter of preference.
Limit Your Scene
Color palette issues often stem from a background that’s too busy. That yellow car behind the subject makes her orange sweater look strange. Or more likely, that huge black building behind him sure makes his skin look pale and pink. Cropping your shot, by zooming in or moving the camera, can eliminate a clutter of color in your background and help you limit your color palette.
You’d be surprised how many color palette problems can be solved this way.
Change Location
This one is personal. I remember spending all day setting up a scene (video) in a really cool brick “coffeehouse” location. When the subject, who shall remain nameless, got there, he was wearing a maroon shirt that clashed horribly with the bricks.
We didn’t change location, but you still can.
If we’re being honest, most of us aren’t going to have the luxury of scouting locations, doing test shoots and having a wardrobe department. Being flexible is our best bet at getting a great color palette. Your best bet is often to try something different.
Change Clothes
Wardrobe is a funny detail. It’s easily changed (in the right situations) but often overlooked.
Having the subject of your scene bring a few options for a coat, shirt, or accessory can help you control your color palette immensely. Plus there are some colors that just work better on camera. As with all of these changes, experimentation is the key. The more you can try out different combinations, the better.
I’ve personally suggested having our pastor travel with a set of four shirts whenever we have a video shoot. I’ve never been taken up on it.
If you haven’t picked up on it yet, there’s a theme here: experiment. Professional photographers spend hours if not days preparing their shots and deciding on a color palette. Of course if all else fails there is that ever handy “desaturate” command.
[Part seven of the Photography Fundamentals series, be sure to check out all 10 posts!]
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