Opposite - Color

We have already used several conceptual techniques, simple techniques that enable us to improve our photographs.

Today I will teach you another technique. The principle to accomplish this is one of the most simple principles; I refer to using "opposite colors" to create appealing images.

Since we were little children they taught us that the primary colors are yellow, blue and red, and that by mixing them we create orange, green and purple.

However, not all of us know which the opposite colors are, and the answer is still simple: opposite colors are a primary color and a secondary color that does not require the presence of the former, that is to say: yellow opposing purple, red opposing green and blue opposing orange.

These color combinations create impressive contrasts, and this is why we do not use them in our daily lives. Few people pain their dining rooms blue and orange, the Christmas red-green combination seems ugly to us, and we would never dare to go on the street with purple pants and a yellow shirt.

Now, taking this into account, another fundamental principle that I want to transmit to you (and about which I will write in further detail later on) is this: the human eye and the camera do not see things in the same way, and one of these things is the combination of opposite colors in photographic images… To seek and to play with elements of opposite colors brings about powerful photographs.

I mention two examples here: one is in Namibia, in this widely known image of "Before the sun the moon" (which belongs in the kit "Setting up the desert"). I found a wall (a mere wall!) – a mere orange colored mud wall, and I superimposed it over an absolutely blue sky… The result? A powerful photograph. But of course there are more elements to make a good photograph, in this case, it is the coloring the main reason why this photograph is so powerful.

Another example is a portrait of my father in Chile. We were walking through the streets of Valparaiso. There were on the street several colorful houses, of different colors and hues, and one of these houses was purple. When my father stood there in front of the door, the scene was just perfect to shoot a different portrait, and the two colors helped to separate him from the purple background.