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Tracing the history of color theory is one of those roads that once you start meandering down, you find yourself feeling a bit like Alice who, after eating a strange piece of cake and growing so enormously tall that she could no longer see her own feet, uttered the famous words, “Curiouser and curiouser.” Indeed. 

Depending on which books you read and how far in history you’re willing to go back, the story of color theory includes, among other notable characters, Leone Battista Alberti, Leonardo da Vinci, and even Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who, in 1810, published a 1,400-page treatise on color (an abridged version of which is still in print, by the way). If you want to go back even further, of course, you would have to drag in the ancient Egyptians whose color theories were so strictly tied to religion that artists were told which colors they could use for certain subjects—and any variations from those options were severely frowned upon. And we all know just how severely the ancient Egyptians could frown upon things they didn’t like.

For photographers, however, perhaps the most significant study of color began with Sir Isaac Newton who, in the late 1660s, used a prism to divide light into the color spectrum we are all so familiar with. Newton, not being one to let a good thing lie half done, then joined the ends of that linear spectrum into a circle, thus creating the prototype for the color wheel that artists and photographers use today. The color wheel is essentially a visual representation of the colors in the spectrum and it has many interesting uses. The primary use for photographers is to help us study the visual and psychological impact of various color combinations. It’s a fascinating topic and one you could spend a lifetime studying, but being aware of just a few of the potential combinations of colors will enable you to choose palettes to enhance and manipulate the mood of your photos.

Color Combinations that Give Meaning to your Photos

Here (very basically) are the main color schemes:

Monochromatic Color is the use of a single color (or very closely related colors) in various intensities and levels of saturation. If you were photographing ferns on the forest floor, for example, you might tighten the composition to limit your palette to a variety of shades of green. Monochrome color schemes are often interpreted as very soothing or calm, though they are probably the least attention getting.

Analogous or Harmonious Colors are colors that are adjacent to one another on the color wheel. In the photo of petunias here, for example, the pinks and violets are very close to each other on the color wheel and, in fact, gradually merge into one another on blended color wheels. As with monochromatic colors, adjacent colors tend to create a feeling of harmony and peacefulness. Because these color pairs are often found occurring naturally in nature, landscape designers and florists are big on analogous color combinations.

Complementary Color is made up of two colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel and that typically compete with one another. You might photograph a warm-toned subject like a yellow ball of yarn contrasting with a cool-toned blue yarn ball, for instance. Complementary colors draw attention because of their inherent visual contrast.

Split Complementary Color uses a particular color and the two colors adjacent to its complement. If green was your main color, then red would be its complement. The two colors on either side of red would be the adjacent colors. A split-complementary color scheme provides good contrast without being as brash as a straight two-color contrast.

Triadic Colors consist of three colors that are found equally spaced around the color wheel—red, yellow, and blue, for instance. The combination of these three colors tends to create an interesting feeling of both contrast and harmony, tending to make compositions look more balanced. Still life and product photographers often use a triadic color scheme for that reason—it’s both vibrant and attractive.

There are actually a few more color combinations that you can read about online or in a good color theory book, but like I said, the farther in you go, the more your head may begin to spin. But not to worry; like Alice, eventually your thoughts will shrink back to normal size and the world will start to make sense once again.