As a long time photography teacher I’ve worked hard to understand how best to use color to make absolutely amazing photos. These days I find the process simple and it’s a joy to share what I’ve learned about the beauty of color with others.

To create amazing color photos it’s important to consider the colors within the scene, the relationship of those colors to each other, the color of the light and how altering color hue, saturation and luminosity in post processing can influence the visual impact of the photograph.

How To Photograph A Colorful Prickly Pear

I photographed this colorful prickly pear hanging over a fence from a laneway in Mildura, a regional city in the far north west of Victoria, Australia.

I made the image with my Sony a7Rii camera and a Sony/Zeiss 24-70mm f/4 lens at 56mm.

The exposure was made under relatively subdued, late afternoon light at 1/60 second at an aperture of f/16 and an ISO of 400.

It’s a very colorful image, though not to the extent of looking fake. The composition is based around the juxtaposition of contrasting warm and cool colors.

That’s important as it reduces the need to amplify the colors during post processing.

Polarizing Filter For A More Colorful Sky

I employed a polarizing filter to deepen (i.e., darken) the color of the already blue sky making it appear more colorful in the photo.

By darkening the sky the polarizing filter also acted to reduce the dynamic range between the prickly pear and the sky.

That was really useful in helping to produce a pleasing result given the relatively complex appearance of the plant.

How Dynamic Range Can Affect Color

The dynamic range within a scene can affect how color reproduces in a photo.

Areas that record too bright will often display weak, unsaturated color.

Likewise, areas of the image that photograph too dark may actually subdue color inherent to that particularly part of the image.

By using careful framing I was able to reduce the dynamic range within this photo of a prickly pear.

I achieved this by simply moving around to avoid the more brightly lit fruit and, as a result, I was able to control how dark the shadows rendered in the photo.

Burnt out highlights and shadows that have rendered dense black are a major challenge for photographers. These days reducing the dynamic range of an image can be achieved in a number of ways.

• Composition

• Move the subject into more even lighting

• Use fill flash

• HDR photography workflow

• Post processing

The lesson is that often the easiest way to reduce the dynamic range in a photo is through framing.

In addition to producing better results, being more selective with what you include in the frame will allow you to simplify your composition and, as a result, do a better job at distilling the essence of the image.

While I was successful in ensuring the shadows in this scene didn’t photograph too dark I did lighten them a little during post processing.

That seemed important as I wanted the shadows to appear in the photo closer to how I would have perceived them when I made the original image.

Three Powerful Ways You Can Explore Color

When it comes to color photography I’m of the opinion that your images need to be, at some level, an exploration of color.

As color is, perhaps, the most important element of composition it should be front and centre in your mind when making the image.

Here are some basic points to consider when it comes to making better color photographs.

• Should the colors in an image be highly saturated or pastel?

• Should the hue (i.e., the color of the color) of, for example, a piece of red fruit be relatively pure in color or should it move towards magenta or yellow?

• Should the luminosity (i.e., brightness) of a particular color be brighter or darker than that of adjacent colors?

Paying attention to these concerns will help you create more emotional charged images. And that’s true whether you’re interested in subtle, pastel color rendition or a more vivid, dynamic result.

If you think about it this photo of circular light patterns is all about an exploration of color hue, saturation and luminosity.

It’s actually an image of Christmas lights on a huge tree that I photographed, outdoors, in the seaside town of Point Lonsdale in Australia.

The effect came about by moving my camera, in a circular motion, during a 10 second long exposure.

The fact that it was night meant that there was very little light reaching the background. As a result it rendered almost black, which helped the color and the shape of those light patterns really stand out.

The Color of Light and Shade

It’s important to be aware that there’s the colors that are presented to us, while we’re making the photo, and then there’s the way we interpret those colors, individually and in relationship to each other.

And of course there’s the color of the light and the color of the shade and how they effect each other in various parts of the photo.

Take a look at this image from a cemetery chapel in Berlin, Germany. The scene was bathed in bluish light and I made sure my image communicated the tranquil, contemplative mood I experienced while making the image.

Conclusion: Let Your Photos Embrace Color

It’s not enough to simply make a photograph that just happens to be in color.

Let color be one of the primary forces that drives your choice of subject and how you work with light, composition and post processing.

By doing so the quality and emotional impact of your color photos will improve significantly.

Glenn Guy, Travel Photography Guru