In the previous post about storytelling images, I’ve mentioned about communicating emotions are not restricted by facial expression. The use of colours in a photos can also trigger emotional responses. If you are already in business, or are planning to start one, you would’ve gone through or thinking about selecting your brand colour along with your font and logo, all the aesthetic stuff. And there’s a whole lot of theory about the relationship between colour psychology and sales and conversion rate.
But here in this post, we are focusing on the use of colours in photos to capture viewer’s attention and evoke a feeling. It’s very obvious that a black and white image typically (not always) gives you somber mood more than a colourful image. On a grey and rainy day, my mood lifts when I’m looking at a picture of the blue sky. Different colours evoke different emotions. Using colours in a photo intentionally can help draw viewer’s attention to your subject and create an overall mood.
One way we can use to create a visually strong image with colour is the use of complementary colours. The complementary colours are the colours opposite of each other on the colour wheel.
Colour Wheel
Green subject against a red background for example makes a visually strong image.
Beware of mixing colours too much within an image. Less is often more when we are playing with colours . A single splash of colour is often visually stronger than a mix of too many colours.
Similarly images with a dominant colour/tone are generally more successful in evoking the emotions of the viewers, such as a simple picture of the blue sea or a sunset scene with a dominat orange/red tone.
We can incorporate colours in an image by way of one’s outfit and accessories, the background, furniture, decorations and any props you are using . A picture with a bright and colourful background certainly make one feel more uplifted than a grey background.
Last but not least, think outside the box and incorporate unexpected colours in photos. We all have expectation that certain subject is associated with a certain colour like we expect the sea to be blue and sunflowers to be yellow. When we have something not quite we expected in front of our eyes, it immediately evoke a reaction.