Heres my assignment:
Your next assignment is to capture images that have the greatest color contrast and as a result are brighter and more visually charged. To do this you will look for situations where complementary colors exist. Something red, like a fire hydrant, in a green field will make the red stand out by contrast to the green. This will be challenging, like a scavenger hunt... but once you get started you might find that you will see complementary colors everywhere. If you cannot find 10 images you can create them -- yellow flowers with one purple flower... red roses with green leaves... a child's red fire truck on a green blanket. Study the color wheel below, make notes of the opposites and happy hunting. (Orange leaves against a blue sky?)
What are complementary colors?
They are opposite colors on the color wheel. If you were a painter you would choose one of the primary colors -- Red, and mix the two other primary colors, yellow and blue to get green. Green is opposite Red on the color wheel. To get the compliment of Blue you mix red and yellow and get orange. Orange is the compliment of Blue. To get the compliment of Yellow, you mix red and blue and get purple. Purple is the complement of Yellow.
Complementary colors create very charged images because they possess all of the colors in the spectrum and tickle your color receptors and energize your brain. They also are the greatest contrast in color because they are opposites and therefore are brighter and visually charged.
The color wheel definitely helps as well. To find a complementary color, look at the exact opposite side of the color wheel. In the wheel below, green is exactly opposite to red, so they are complementary. So in the image above, the red fire hydrant is a complementary color to the green grass. It’s also handy to know how the secondary colors transition into one another so you know what works with, say, a more bluish-green (answer: a more orangish-red). You don’t need to keep a color wheel with you all the time. Just have a look at it now and again so you it stays fresh in your mind.
Going to the garden center is a great idea... and a farm stand. Tom got an amazing photograph of red trees against green trees with a blue sky the other day when he was driving around...hopefully he stopped before he snapped the photo, I mean texting and driving is insane to do, but taking photographs and driving, that would be WRONG! LOL!
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