Part 3 - Colour - Exercise 3 - Colour Relationships

This exercise was in two parts. The first being to produce one photograph of each complimentary pair of colours (opposites in the colour wheel) to the following ratios:

Red - Green 1:1
Orange - Blue 1:2
Yellow - Violet 1:3

These ratios were first suggested by German poet/playwright J.W. Von Goethe and given to help help harmonise the complimentary colours by balancing the relative brightness of each Hue.

Red/Green 1:1

This image has the 1:1 ratio for red and green and I tried to introduce a mirror image setup, just the kids on the chairs had other ideas. Red and green should never be seen is a well known saying but in an image with these ratios in particular it can be seen the do fall into a complimentary category bringing harmony to one another.

Orange/Blue 1:2

Blue and orange I feel are quite common especially in shop fronts and sales, probably with the brightness of the orange becoming more striking when placed next to the pure blue with this ratio of 1:2.

Yellow/Violet 1:3

I used a close up of an old football which conveniently had yellow and violet as decoration. With a tight crop I tried to get the ratio of 1:3 giving the bright yellow some harmony in the dark violet appearing in a generally satisfying way.


The second part of the exercise was to show 3 photos that show two or more combinations of colours that appeal to me, and the idea being to prove that there is no single correctness to complimentary colours.

Image 1

Here in image 1 I found these colourful rows of nail polish in a local stall. I chose it because I wanted to study the effect of putting so many colours together in some kind of order. With yellow being the only one omitted, all the hue's of the colour wheel are are represented, mostly all on the second row. This row demands the main attention with a dynamic feeling to it, leaving the rest of the rows to fall in behind much more peacefully. I felt the 4 rows could possibly represent the 1:3 ratio that yellow and violet needs to create harmony, with the colourful 2nd row representing the omitted bright yellow and the other 3 weaker rows representing the darker violet.

Image 2

Image 2 is again many combinations of colour. The rows of trainers have many colours and some individual shoes also have their own mini combination of intensely saturated Hues. This certainly create an imbalance in the image. With so much going on, from the many colours to the different direction of the pairs then to the uneven pairing of two right shoes and no left shoe in any of the display, there is a very hectic and energetic feel creating uneasiness and only manages to throw the eye all over the image, never resting anywhere. This could arguably be useful in the promotion of sports footwear suggest activeness and motion.

Image 3

Image 3 is in complete contrast to image 2, with a much more balanced scene. For a start the four main Hues are softer with weaker saturation and all slightly bright. Blue and orange being the only pairing that can be described as complimentary I thought it would be interesting to study this combination of four colour is this mainly neutral setting. The definite lines of the roof structure do bring an order to the image, with the darker tones of the shadows at the bottom of the shot and brighter areas of the defused light from the skylights at the top the is a controlled balance. I feel the harmonious combination of colours just help to complete the balance of the whole image and just get enough edginess from the non complimentary pairs to make bring it alive enough to make it interesting.

Again another interesting exercise where I had to explore more colours around my environment and forced to think about their relationship to one another in their surroundings. Something I have never done before and must admit I am enjoying learning more from each exercise. It seems there is good  reason to understand the complimentary pairings along with the harmonious ratios but there is also nothing set in stone and like many elements of photography, rules are not definite. Each image and photograph has its own story to tell and knowing how to use these rules to tell it is what learning is all about.