Colors, Saturation and Contrast

By Peter Thoeny, one of our Digital Photo Academy instructors in San Francisco.

Ask, how can different colors and color palettes bring balance? 

Ask, how much saturation and contrast do I need? Study complementary colors, as well as color palettes (web designers are familiar with this).

Example: Higher color saturation of complimentary colors, still natural (although human eyes can’t see much color in low light); at Werdenberg Lake, Buchs, Switzerland

Example: Low saturation of complimentary colors; at Mary Ave footbridge, Cupertino, California

                   Example: Rainbow colors, at SF MOMA, San Francisco, California

Example 6: Complementary colors, warm and cold, reduced color saturation;, Santa Cruz, California

Example: Color photo with much reduced color saturation; San Francisco from a small aircraft (Cessna 172)

 Example: Complementary colors, warm and cold, at Alviso, California

Example: Color photo with reduced saturation, only cyan and orange colors; San Francisco, California

Example: Complementary colors, reduced saturation; sunset at Mt. Tamalpais, north of San Francisco, California

Example: Yellow is dominant; umbrella had different color, fix with hue shift; Hofturm, Chur, Switzerland

Example: Infrared image, actually done by applying an infrared filter in post; a Camera needs to be converted to infrared; at Garland Ranch Regional Park, located on the California coast in the Carmel Valley

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography, http://bit.ly/qualityHDR

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