Colour

Colour where would be without it? Snooker would be even more boring, you wouldn't have to fight over the blue smarties and playing Twister wouldn't be much fun.

If you get to grips with colour and what it can do, you can open up another world. Learning when and how to use colour will inspire you and make your photography even better.

Artists sometimes use a colour wheel and this is basically a circle that contains the colours of the rainbow: red and yellow and pink and green, purple and orange and blue (yes I did sing it.)

The primary colours are: red, yellow and blue - they're prime as they cannot be made from any other colours. It's probably not a great surprise that the others, are known as secondary colours and they can be made by mixing equal amounts of primary colours. It's not rocket science it's colour science.

If this all sounds a bit too like going back to school take a quick look at Photoshop and where you select colour. Take a closer look - all the warm colours are together in a band, it's acting like a colour wheel. Go on have a play.

There's a lot of things to think about when it comes to colour theory and you can feel a little confused as there's a lot to take in but fear not, to make things easy you can group colours together in some nifty sounding categories…

Complementary

Oddly enough these complement each other, they don't detract from each other but work well in harmony as a team, just like The Sugarbabes (well before they split up.) Complementary colours are opposite each other in a colour wheel - think of blue and orange, blue & yellow, red & green etc. (In art, the complementary colour of a primary colour is the colour you get by mixing the other two primary colors.)

If you're on the ball you may be thinking that these colours seem familiar. Complementary colours often occur in nature most common in flowers and foliage. Clever old Mother nature - atta girl!

Many famous corporate logos use complementary tones & colours within their logs such as: Mastercard, FedEx, Shell, McDonalds etc. (Until they get a v expensive rebrand and then do some research and find that customers don't like change and they have to change it all back.)

If you fancy experimenting with complementary colours, you could shoot children wearing bright raincoats, go back to nature with some floral still lifes or gather up a collection of seasonal fruit/vegetables.

Tones

Different tones ones of the same colour can work very well together and create a great result, a selection of dogs from light to dark brown would be a great looking challenge, or a selection of leaves and woodland debris or siblings dressed in varying shades of demin.

Contrasting/Clashing colours

This should be a no no but it can actually work very well creating strong contrasts. These colours often lie opposite/far away from each other on the colour wheel such as: orange and blues and pink and green. This again works well in nature but take care, as it can look pants in print. Many photo mags carry shots of powder paints, groups of coloured pens, plastic protractors etc try to think of something a little different.

Why not visit the seaside and shoot some brightly coloured buoys/fishing nets or take a trip in the car and shoot some brightly coloured signage.

Warms versus cool

Warm colours appear on the left hand of the colour wheel and consist of: red, orange, yellow etc - these colours tend to feel closer than recede. Think of gorgeous sunsets and children playing on the beach.

Shoot early in the morning for subtle warmth and then shoot in the late afternoon sun for that gorgeous glowy result - a must for landscapes and wonderful shots of children and backlit (contre-jour) animals.

Blue, green, purple are cooler and sit on the right hand side of the colour wheel. A dull overscast day can produce flat results when taking landscapes but with a little bit of fill-in (via flash/reflector) you can get some great portraits.

Dress models in really thick cuddly blue/grey jumpers and choose a simple background. You can also use warm and cool colour next to each other to create an interesting contrast. Shoot someone dressed in blue with pink wellies or tie some lavender with piece of red/yellow ribbon.

Neutral Colours

Neutral colours as you would guess are neutral and work well with each other as they don't detract. Neutrals are: black, grey, white, beige. I'd also add in pale browns and fawns (the colour not small deer.) Pale landscapes with muted colours can look virtually colourless but incredibly serene and comforting.

If you like something a little more subtle you might like to consider colours that work in harmony with each other, these lie close to each other in the colour wheel. If you're thinking of greens & yellows and reds & oranges and pinks & lilacs, you'd be spot on.

An overall dark image can look mean and moody but can contain a myriad of tones. You can also create more of a contrast by placing a subject of a lighter or darker tone within an image.

Accent colours These add a little interest to an image think of a small area of contrasting colour or a hand coloured area in a mono shot. It's a way to highlight a certain part of an image and can be very effective. There are really no hard and fast rules as with most things in photography, you just need to get stuck in and experiment. You'll be surprised at what works and soon find out what doesn't. You might like to go for something subtle and peaceful or the complete opposite and bright and brash - it's all possible. Don't forget if it doesn't look great on the page you can always replace colour, change saturation/contrast or play around with your midtones in Photoshop. Don't forget you can even in one touch convert to grayscale.