Color Theory

[ApproachingLight]

Think this website is interesting. Does anyone think about this stuff when trying to compose a picture? Or, do you ever notice that you like a certain picture and you don't know exactly why, and these color relationships explain it?

/www.paper-leaf.com/blog/wp-content/uplo ... _White.jpg

[Matt]

I use color software and Adobe Kuler.com at my day job when designing or changing colors for different markets. Although these theories seem fundamental, they pretty much apply to certain cultures-- specifically New World North. Red and gold goes with Everything in China. Green is a reserved and symbolic color in many muslim-dominated countries. Many ancient tribal schemes are very counter to color relationships, but persist and become very welcome in modern design of the current cultures in that region. The western idea of color relationships, as illustrated above, is based on comfortable transition between colors-- essentially what offers just enough contrast to be different, but not on the complete opposite of the spectrum. It works great for home decorating, website color schemes and clothing. It does not necessarily work for sports, product packaging, advertisements, and products distributed internationally.
Although I never thought about shooting specifically for color relationships (sounds like a nice future change), I have purchased stock art based on certain rules. There are a few stock websites that will sort the photos by a set of chosen colors.

[ApproachingLight]

The western idea of color relationships, as illustrated above, is based on comfortable transition between colors-- essentially what offers just enough contrast to be different, but not on the complete opposite of the spectrum.

Yeah! I must be a geek this way cause I find it interesting. Like fashion is to clothes, seems color relationships are to culture. Clearly ( to me) the photographic trend here leans toward single tone composition. So is it all temporal personal/cultural taste or is there some real unconscious color relationships? Cha! too serious for a Saturday night.

[Matt]

The color charts above are a serious attempt at applying mathematical thought (patterns) to matching color. There are few ways of doing this since there are few recognizable color groups, which makes this a somewhat universal standard. It's just that not ever culture would welcome a standard based on pattern.
One thing that I have found to be consistent, is that groups of color strengths tend to be globally accepted. Meaning that as long as colors are within their groups (pastels, earth tones, body tones, unnatural, dayglow) these tend to be more welcome in most cultures.