The Rule of Three Colors
I’m sure most of you have heard of the Rule of Thirds - which states that if you divide a picture up into thirds, the subject generally works best when it is not in the middle third. I think this rule works quite well, though as with everything in photography there are times when it should be broken.
There are a number of other “Rules” in photography, but one of those I like most is what I call “The Rule of Colors”. I’m sure it is not new - and there may be a more widely known name for it, but I did notice it myself before anyone mentioned it to me.
To illustrate this rule, what do these two pictures have in common?
At first, these two pictures may seem to have nothing in common, but they both make use of a very simple color scheme. Both shots contain only two strong colors within the shot, which in my opinion is what makes them stronger.
Around two years ago, I attended a workshop where a number of very well known photographers talked and displayed their work. As I looked at some of their best shots, I started to think about what made them such good shots. I was quite surprised to see that almost every shot presented made use of three or fewer colors.
Here is a very famous example (which was also displayed at the workshop) - http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photographers/afghan-girl-cover.html
I’m sure most of you have seen this shot, and if you count the colors, there are just the skin tone, red, and green.
Like all rules, there are times when it works best to break this rule, but I have found that most of my best shots exhibit this - even if I wasn’t paying attention at the moment.
Recently I have been trying to pay attention to this more. Very often when taking macro insect shots I focus all of my attention on just getting the bug in focus. Now I also pay attention to what colors are in the image and see if there is anything I can do about it. This also means that I ignore subjects I would have previously spent time on. This might sound bad, but I have noticed my shots improving since I did this.
On an even more recent shoot, I got this shot after ignoring several others with less interesting color schemes and angles.
Another side effect of reducing colors is I find myself zooming in a bit more in order to reduce the effect of distracting backgrounds. When using the Rule of Three Colors, the resulting pictures are often simpler and more pleasing.
Of course, I am not saying that all photos should have less than three dominant colors. There are certainly many examples of great photos that break this rule. However, just by paying attention to this rule and being aware that you are in fact breaking it will often force you to pay more attention to the color schemes in your picture. Does the shot need those extra colors? Is there a way to get rid of those colors through framing? You may decide that those extra colors do add to the shot, but I suspect the more common answer you’ll find is they do not. And when they do add to the shot, you’ll be more confident of the result because you thought it through.
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