Week Three: COLOUR THEORY

The 'Colour Wheel' contains the main three primary colours -  Red, Yellow and Blue. They can’t be mixed together at all. The wheel also has the three secondary colours - Orange, Green and Purple (or Violet). The secondary colours are created by the mixing of two primaries e.g. Orange is made using Red and Yellow. The other six colours known as 'tertiary' are mixed using one primary and one adjacent secondary e.g.  Red and Orange make what is known as Red- Orange.

There is also something called 'Colour Temperature'. Red, Yellow and Orange are usually thought to be "warm" colours and Green, Blue and Purple are thought to be "cool" colours. This is partly based on the associations and connotations with things like fire, the sun and the sea and ice.

Any three colours which are next to each other on the Colour Wheel are said to be analogous, meaing tht they are similar in shade hue and therefor 'fit' together. Whereas colours opposite each other are called complementary, meaning that they are opposite to one another and yet they still match in a certain way. 

“Photographers respond to colours in an emotional way, while the camera is broadly even-handed in the way it represents colours. Across different cultures, the emotional impact or meaning of colours appear to be broadly similar – although specific cultural significancies may be contradictory. Therefore, knowing how use colour can aid your ability to communicate meaning through your images. Colour photography is most successful when you work with the colour for a specific meaning or effect, rather than simply using photography to record colours. One approach is to photograph the colour rather than the subject, to treat the subject as if it were the incidental feature."

For my 'Colour Theory' project, I have chosen the main colour I will focus on as Green. For my photoshoot, I am planning on getting my model to stand in a forest or overgrown area, to link to the nature connotations of the colour, and get them to wear a coat that I have that is a shade of emerald and will stand out amonst the lighter colours of the trees.