so a few years back I uploaded a black and white photo to Facebook and immediately my brother and my sister congratulated me on now being a real professional photographer you and me both know that can't be further from the truth I'll never be a professional photographer Jokes Aside although black and white photography is an art form in itself and deserves just as much respect as working with caller the thing is that although the world delivers all the callar to you proper color photography is just freaking hard to master my name is mass Peter iers and I do work as a professional landscape photographer in this video we are diving deep into everything photographers need to know about color theory and remember to subscribe if you want to learn even more and join me when I go out into the field and take beautiful photos and just before we getting started if you want to learn more much more about light my newly released 251 Pages ebook covers everything you need to know about that subject with minimal text and tons of examples it's super easy to read I have even added extensive exive data to each photo so you can see exactly what I'm doing you can get it alone or bundled up with my two eBooks on composition they are very worth getting to there's a link down description of the video let's get started to learn something about color working with color is like adding this third layer to your Visual Arts whereas composition and light are the two others and although we usually separate these three aspects fact of the matter is they are completely bound to each other how the light falls in your scene or to influence your composition and how the colors are distributed in your scene also ought to influence your composition see it like this without light we would not be able to see the different shapes and patterns made by the physical elements in our scene it would just be completely black once we add light to it it is how the light interacts with the elements that makes it possible to compose the scene and how we arrange the elements and light will determine where our attention goes and finally if we add colors to the scene there's now this extra layer we as photographers will have to deal with in composing our scene and where what colors are present will highly influence the attention and mood of the scene but especially on this subject it is super important to sort out the definitions color is a massive subject and there are many different ways to talk about it but I will approach it from the angle of hue saturation and Luminosity hsl you know them from the hsl sliders in postprocessing software like Lightroom Hue is what we traditionally call color so red pink blue green yellow orange and so on saturation is the intensity of the color if we completely saturate the color we make it as clean or as pure as it can be as Illustrated here in the color selector if we play with the saturation Sliders in Lightroom or camera row you can see if we completely saturate the Hue it looks unrealistic and if we desaturate the color completely it becomes gray with which also looks unrealistic Luminosity is the brightness of the Hue so if we add white to the Hue it becomes brighter but you can also see we lose saturation and likewise if we add black the same happens we lose saturation so when we talk about tones we talk about a specific Hue in combination with saturation and Luminosity so basically a color combined with a shade of gray if we look in nature it's almost impossible if not actually impossible to find anything that is 100% saturated with any color because many things influence how we see color sunlight and Shadows the texture of surfaces and even tiny mixes of colors within objects all affect saturation also light itself is made of many different wavelengths so isolating a single perfectly saturated one is actually really difficult we also talk about temperature in relation to color and here the definition is rather obvious cold colors gravitate towards blue and warm colors gravitates towards orange this is very important to understand in photography as it also relates to white balance and white balance in photography corrects for color casts caused by different light sources ensuring whites appear neutral and is a tool you can use to make the overall image appear natural so before we talk about the psychology of colors we need to know a little bit about perception and fair warning here this can be a little bit scary because it deals with the foundation of human existence and no I'm actually not kidding here because perception is everything so roughly speaking we can say that perception is the combination of sensory stimuli and our brain's interpretation of that stimuli and this means we need to be extreme be careful about how we talk about color is it objective is it subjective or is it in fact intersubjective so other photographers on YouTube usually leave out this part when they talk about color but I as a trained philosopher actually think I owe to you to explain a little bit more about this part now we can of course talk about color objectively from a scientific point of view where we can measure the different wavelengths of light with our scientific instruments there's of course also a subjective Dimension to color my state of mind looking at color can influence how I perceive it but I personally am also a little bit color blind so I will never ever perceive specific colors exactly as you guys out there so another way to talk about color objectively is how other species have developed another kind of side so some species can actually see infrared light and other species again can see ultra violet light so site and colors are objectively different between species but there is the subjective Dimension to it between individual members in those species so I as a trained philosopher find both subjectivity and objectivity super interesting but there is a third dimension inter subjectivity that I find to be because how we human beings perceive color is also based on our culture and how we speak about it as it turns out blue is actually the last color to be added to almost every language across culture it's not like people couldn't see the color we perceive as blue today back then it's that the different shades of blue were categorized differently like how dark blue was categorized with black thereby affecting how we approached it you used it and perceived it and it's actually pretty easy to understand when we break with our modern categorization of colors because this color is definitely not the same as this color the YouTube channel ASAP science has a fascinating video on this topic that I can highly highly recommend and another probably more relevant example is how we in the mid 20th century introduced via consumerism pink as a girl colar and blue as a boy colar and despite various gender Liberation movements that perception is still sticking around to today however before that pink was actually a Boy Color so it's not like girls couldn't wear pink but red was seen as a masculine color and pink was seen as light red make sense so even though we through history and the social sciences have found out that color is relative to culture does not mean that the perception of color is indifferent now a few good examples here would be like if you eat that special colored Barry you die if you grab that special colored fish you die if you put on yellow in a forest wall you die if you mix up the traffic signals red and green you die and if you give a lady a compliment and she blush and you choose to act on that signal you may have found your future spouse and in that way you can participate in the continuation or of the human species and through Evolution make sure that that signal passes On to the Next Generation so hopefully you can see what I mean when I said it could be a little bit scary so because the perception of color has consequences we attribute different meanings to the different colors but how do we use the psychology of color in our photography work now I am a landscape photographer and as already demonstrated color is an enormous subject with both objective inter subjective and subjective aspects to it I will stick to using examples we generally see in nature but the principles do apply to all photography and visual art for that matter here is an overview of how we generally perceive different colors I'm not going to make a deep dive and show examples of each so I'll just stick to how we use this in nature and landscape photography and just to be precise as you can see purple is associated with luxury wealth and privilege and that's because in ancient times purple was a color that was extremely hard to produce so it was only the most privileged and rich people who could afford it therefore purple became a symbol of status hence why if we see a cartoon or a movie and a person is wearing purple that person is probably wealthy or privileged however it is not like we look at a photo of blooming Heather and start thinking of luxury or wealth likewise I don't think any of us start overthinking and interpreting a landscape photo containing a person with a red jacket on like what does it mean that this person is wearing a red jacket is he very angry or is he full of love no obviously in a context of nature bright and saturated colors like red and yellow are used to stand out and be seen for the sake of safety so that's also what we associate those colors with in that context so when it comes to nature photography what especially influence our perception of a photo is the temperature and the amount of saturation in the photos so relatively warm photos will for the most part be perceived with the meaning of warm colors like energetic excitement love warning and danger they tend to advance and come forward in space and to command attention and relatively cold photos will generally be perceived as calmness serenity freshness nature and comfort they do not overpower and tend to recede in space saturated photos tend to be perceived as positive upbeat and intense while desaturated or muted colors tend to be perceived as Moody comb and soft a relatively dark photo will emphasize power heaviness and sophistication while a relatively brighter photo will emphasize cleanliness Simplicity lightness and Purity so how does all this play together with a photo of a sunset because I personally don't find Sunset photos to be particularly energetic no and that's because color is not the only thing influencing your perception of the photo subject shapes lighting and as mentioned the luminosity and tonality of the color and the viewer state of mind all play into the perception and meaning of a photo however color is a not insignificant part of the full equation and not to be ignored but nevertheless to give you an example here is the same scene with and without golden our colors and it ought to be clear that the warmer photo does feel more energetic contrasting tones also add drama energy and Life to a photo remember how we saw that black emphasizes power heaviness and sophistication we add more of that meaning to our colors and likewise if we add white to our colors we had more of that meaning and not to sound like your English class teacher it is in the contrast between brightness and darkness that the drama appears so basically contrasty photos are just perceived as more dramatic than flat photos and finally just like high contrast elements draw attention in your photos so do elements or parts of your photo that are more saturated compared to its surroundings a very classic example of this is that selective color photo of a Yellow Cap in New York where the the rest of the photo is just black and white and then there is color Harmony and that is a theory on what colors work and play well together and I absolutely need to hammer this point in color harmonies is a tool that you can use to identify and work with colors in your photography for improved Aesthetics it is not the objective truth I will show some fun examples of how not to apply Color Harmony in just a moment but think of them as compositional tools that you can pull out of your toolbox and then apply to your photography so to understand color harmonies we need the color wheel this is a tool called Adobe color and to be completely honest I never use it but it is great to visualize what I mean and it is a fun tool you can use to analyze your own photos a few classic combinations of of color would be analogous complimentary and monochromatic I do show and discuss more color harmonies in my ebook on light in the chapter about color so be sure to get that ebook via the link down in description of the video and subscribe to my newsletter if you want the free light version of the ebook in this video I'll just stick to these three classic ones let's start with analogous an analogous color Harmony contains Hues placed next to each other on the color wheel several Hues that are connected to each other constitute an analogous color Harmony not all analogous color harmonies work well for landscape photography but generally speaking analogous color harmonies are considered to evoke a sense of calm and Tranquility because they share the same or similar hes the transition between them are smooth and gentle which is inherently combing to the eye analogous color schemes are often found in nature such as the gradual shift from blue to green in a landscape or warm tones of a sunset the complimentary color Harmony is also a very classic color Harmony we often find in nature complimentary colors are located opposite each other on the color wheel and complement each other a very common complimentary color Harmony found in nature is orange and blue also known as orange and teal we see it throughout the golden hour where highlights turn golden and shadows turn more bluish even though a complimentary color Harmony is usually considered more dramatic than analogous because we work with more and different colors the overall scene and subject still influence the perception of the photo another place we also often see orange and teal is in Autumn photos however complimentary colors don't have to be orange and teal here are a few other examples with a complimentary color Harmony where the colors are are green and purple and finally we have the monochromatic color Harmony not to be confused with black and white photography mono means one and chromatic means color so a photo with different tones of one color in nature we generally either see warm monochromatic photos taken around the golden hour or cold versions taken in more Moody conditions or during the blue hour it's also important to emphasize that aesthetically no color Harmony is better or more pleasing than other color harmonies they fulfill different purposes as mentioned for photographers color Harmony is a theory that you can use to apply to your scene or to identify colors in nature in combination with color Harmony is also important to remember to discuss color balance because that can be confusing when we talk about color balance in landscape photography we are not just referring to technical adjustments in post processing it's about how you perceive and utilize color in your composition think about how the Warm Glow of the golden hour light might balance the cool Deep Shadows among the hills or mountains or how the vibrant Hues of wild flowers can complement the muted tones of a distant mountain range achieving a visual equilibrium through color creates a sense of Harmony guiding the viewer's eye and enhancing the emotional impact of the image it is actually more about about understanding the weight and the impact of the colors and how they interact to tell a story rather than trying to get a 50/50% orange and teal distribution where the saturation is cranked to 100% on each color on the contrary to achieve an equilibrium you actually generally want to aim for a 70/30 or 80/20 distribution of huge luminosity and saturation as an example you can have one dominant color containing several tones and then another less dominant and desaturated color taking up the majority of the photo as much as color is inter subjective and subjective and you as the artist is free to do whatever you want the viewer will approach your photos with a whole range of assumptions about the world so unless you want the viewer to disregard your photo as unrealistic we can't strive too far away from what looks natural and need to stick within the realm of believability and that does limit what we can do to our photos and post processing we see specific color combinations in nature and that is arguably why we humans perceive certain colors to work well together but nature dictates whether a color Harmony works for the specific scene which makes color Harmony highly context dependent just because orange and teal are very common and they work well as complimentary colors we cannot just r reverse the colors in a photo so that the highlights are blue and the Shadows are orange it looks completely wrong likewise adding orange and teal to a snowy photo doesn't work at all I don't think I need to explain why and just because red and green are opposite on the color wheel and complimentary colors in theory look well together does not mean you can just add red to the highlights in a photo where the dark areas are predominantly green again it looks completely unnatural so we need to stay within the realm of believability and that means we can only do so much to our photos before they get disregarded as a natural I really like color in my photography and I also really like contrast I often add a lot of contrast to my photos and in doing so the colors also become more saturated that is why I often end up dialing back the saturation of the different Hues especially those that I do not want to draw attention to so simply put I generally reduce the color luminosity and intensity if I wanted to play less of a role whereas if I wanted to play a bigger role I increase its intensity its saturation and then by taking the surrounding colors into consideration I decide whether I want to increase or decrease the Luminosity if you only work in Lightroom or camera raw it is all about using the different sliders something as simple as changing the contrast slider and temperature slider can make a massive difference reference to your golden hour photos especially when you have very saturated clouds I actually often end up decreasing the temperature quite substantially to make sure the colors in the clouds don't clip and if the blue part of the sky become too saturated I use the hsl sliders to turn down the saturation elsea use a lot of masking so that I work locally on the photo this is also how I work when I work in Photoshop loads of masking and adjustment layers as to work done destructively I have recently released a video where I share some of the most important and efficient editing techniques I use in Lightroom and camera roll check it out afterwards I'm sure you can extract a lot of information from there and if you struggle even more with editing your photos be sure to enroll in a big Photoshop for landscape photographers postprocessing course it is in this 20 plus hours 30 plus videos course where I share all my different editing techniques everything from introducing you to the programs over simple and basic editing and my philosophy of editing over how to clean your photos properly how to dodge and burn how to work with atmosphere and glow how to blend with Luminosity masks and how to edit with Luminosity masks and much much much more such as advanced blending focus stacking focal length blending time blending how to edit Moody photos how to addit Forest photos how to addit foggy photos and again much much much more there's a link down in the description of the video with a coupon code so you can save a little bit upon enrolling in landscape photography we use certain colors and certain light to optimize Aesthetics when we look at landscape photos we're usually not expecting to extract or interpret some deeper meaning from it the colors and Light present in a sunrise naturally and usually yield that soothing and optimistic feeling it's usually all about the Aesthetics and raw feeling that the photo conveys whether it is the optimistic feeling or a sunrise dramatic stormy conditions around the waterfall gorgeous dable light on Rolling Hills beautiful sunset light in a mountainous landscape or the Ethereal calm feeling of a blue hour we usually try to catch and convey emotion more than actually tell a story I generally like to have people in my Vista Landscapes I use them to help show scale and give them a sense of adventure however when it comes to color I prefer to have people in more muted color clothing and having them visible by placing them on bright backgrounds this helps to anonymize them instead of having them stand out with a bright yellow or Red Jacket which will draw all the attention in the photo towards them and kind of makes you miss the landscape so let's dig into and analyze a few examples with everything we have learned so far here we have a somewhat 70 30ish distribution of cold and warm tones so a complementary color Harmony the muted pastal colors give us a calm and soothing feeling and the focus is the Tranquility of the morning in this example we also have a complimentary color Harmony but in contrast to the former photo this one is much more dramatic obviously the subject is more dramatic but that does not mean I need to edit it that way way I just found it logical to emphasize the lava and you can also see how we actually have an analogous color Harmony in the highlights that basically contain all the Hues from reds to the yellows this takes up approximately 30% of the photo and then it is wrapped in this very dark and muted blue hue to contrast the lava and really make it stand out yet still make the overall photo fall within an aesthetic complimentary color hary I didn't need to add that blue hue to the Shadows but I think it actually looks really good and in this photo we actually also have a complimentary color Harmony back when I took this photo in 2017 I admittedly did not consider color harmonies but I do remember when I released this photo some people suggested that I should have put sopia in a yellow rain jacket to make her stand out even more on the blue background and yes she obviously would but it is not like you can't see her in in the photo here right also everybody and their mother made those muted colored and blown highlights banana pictures on Instagram back then I do wonder where all those people are today I hope at least a few of them made it as photographers anyway I could change the color of her jacket to red but then we just run into the same problem that she draws too much attention it is not like the photo isn't about her in the landscape but I just think a yellow or red jacket is too much this photo is super interesting because here I completely broke with the realm of believability but as I explained in the video I purposely decided to edit this collection of photos with an inspiration from traditional Japanese ink painting and by editing with intent and a concept to back up your wild ideas you can actually easily get the viewer to accept the photo even though it breaks away from reality this photo actually also has an analogous color Harmony because I kept all the warm Hues from red to Yellow there's still a tiny bit of Blues in the sky but they are rather insignificant in the grand scheme of things and in this photo from laner we have an 020 distribution of the warmer and colder or muted tones creating another complimentary color Harmony the warm colors create the drama from the sunset while the very muted but slightly cold tones in the clouds emphasize the mood and just to give you an example of a monochrome photo in this one I purposely first removed all color and then added a blue tone to the shadows as to emphasize the cold Nordic mood it is generally something I really love doing in these kinds of photos where the scene is very moody I remove most if not all warm tones and then use muted cold tones to emphasize the often Bleak and melancholic feeling another big thing related to color I have learned over the years is just how much I love photo graphing during late summer in Denmark it is actually my favorite time of year when the Heather blooms and most leaves on the trees have turned dark green when you get that beautiful complimentary color Harmony between the purple heather and green vegetation in combination with an atmospheric moaning I just find it to be very coming I also found that I find the darker colder Greens on trees to be more calming than the brighter and warmer autumn colors when comparing these two photos of the exact same subject there is no doubt I prefer the calmer and colder version than the energetic and vibrant Autumn version even if the Autumn version had some fog to help create separation and calb the colors I would still prefer the colder version not because I do not enjoy the Autumn version but if I am to print and hang a photo I'd prefer something that comals me down rather than screams at me color and light are two sides of the same coin because color is light and light is color I continue the education on color and light in my ebook landscape light which you can get along with my eBooks on composition and huge postprocessing course down in the description of the video If you enjoyed this video I'm sure you will enjoy the video on the screen right now so check it out and see you over there oh and also I would highly appreciate both a like and a comment