colour definitions

COLOUR DEFINITIONS

Whether black white and grey, bright or dull; all photos included the biggest and main element of the 7. Colour!  The tone can be saturated, muted or analogous colours. There's also psychology behind the colour in photos...

Saturated colours: This is how colourful/bright/vibrant a colour with in a photo is.

 As you can see from this image on the left, the side that is more saturated, the colour stands out much more compared to the side which is desaturated. 

For example, from this photo of the flower, the colour is much brighter that the end of the scale in the picture above. Many photographers use saturated photos because it clearly conveys the colour of the image. Therefore the viewers and get a clear sense of the photo- as if it was really in front of them.

Muted colours: These colours are much less intense as have
been toned down or have been toned down with a darker tone, black or grey.



As it's seen in this photo, muted colours are much duller and darker than the colours which are saturated above.




For example, photographers use muted colours for landscapes. This use of colour creates a rather "depressing" emotion to as its much darker than the normal photo. In every day you can see muted colours on cloudy days which this image is an example of. Also some may class black and white photos as muted colours, however this isn't correct because there are still colours in the photo, they are just much more intense.

Analogous colour: These are three or more colours which are next to each other on the colour wheel. One of them are most likely to be a primary colour, for example, Red, red-yellow, red-purple.

The is clear from this colour chart on the left how analogous colours are normally colours which go very well together.

Photographs with analogous colours are one of my favorite to look at both in person and on images. As shown in this example, landscapes capture analogous colours very well. Due to the sun set in this photo, it has given the effect on the clouds and the sky making them beautiful joining colours giving the photographer a beautiful scenery to take a photo of.

Complimentary Colours: A colour combined with a given colour and makes white/black.

This chart shows (On the left) how opposite colours on the colour chart are complimentary colours. This image (On the right) shows an example of complimentary colours.

Psychology of colour:  The psychology of colour is the theory of how human behavior can be affected by a certain colour and how colour can influence us in ways such as the taste of food. 

As you can see from the image on the left, most colours have been given emotion/behavior or feelings to. For example, Red means power, Pink means respect, Purple means Deep, Navy means Peace, Green means Safety, Blue means Ambition, Orange means Warmth.