Soft color or harmonious colors in photography can be fascinating. In digital photography coloring, harmonious colors can be as beautiful as photograph with contrast or opposite colors in color wheel theory.

Many beautiful and successful photographs tend to be monochromatic; it does not mean black and white but combination with nearly the same color, the harmonious colors. For example, landscape photography in the misty morning when the sun rises, or landscape photo with sunset in late the afternoon. Their atmospheres are predominantly reddish and yellowish.

For example in the photograph below, it was taken early in the morning when the sun was around 10 degrees above the horizon. Since the sun light is coming from the background the object (a horse like tree), it creates a silhouette sunrise atmosphere. ISO speed is 100; aperture f/22; white balance ‘Shade’ and shutter speed is 1/50 using standard zoom lens EFS 17-85 Canon. It evokes harmonious colors in the horizon with reddish cloud.

Soft or harmonious colors are often applied to create warm atmosphere in portrait; landscape or still life photography. Romantic photos are usually created with soft harmonious color to accentuate the mood; not the contrast colors. Therefore the effective way is to use limited harmonious color palette or even tends to use no color.

In the photograph below, the couples were arranged in a romantic mood enjoying the late afternoon moon light with single harmonious blue color.

It was late afternoon with full moon in the east when I was waiting for the sunset. Unfortunately the dark cloud covered the west horizon, no reddish atmosphere appeared. I focused on the couple that enjoy the full moon and arrange the composition for both the couple and the moon at the points of power according to rules of third theory. The moon becomes the complementary object to emphasize the romantic atmosphere for the couples; the main point of interest object.

The still life photographs would be more impressive when they use the limited color range. Selection of the object; background and other elements with harmonious colors should be arranged.

Photographs with single color are not less attractive than those with strong contrast. If you cannot find the background which is suitable with the object color; you can try white background or dark background. See also how to trick background – issues and problems.

It is understood that white balance setting in the camera will affect the way the camera record the colors. The other way to modify the camera response is adjusting color saturation and contrast, and at certain level both are related each other. Increasing the contrast; increasing the color saturation and vice versa.

See also:

• Composition photography Guidelines
• Camera exposure technique
• Digital photography Tips and guidelines