Understanding Color Schemes
If you have ever seen an amazing photo and just thought about how beautiful it was, usually those photos follow the rules of color theory. Think about wedding photos, people put in a lot of effort to make sure everyone matches and the colors work together. This is one of the main reasons why wedding photos are so perfect.
Thankfully for family photos you do not need to try that hard or spend that much money. When deciding what to wear for your photos. There are some guides you can follow if you need ideas or you really what your photos to “pop”.
In the end they are your photos and your family so you can wear whatever you want! But if you need ideas or tips this page will help.
This is a color wheel. To help get an idea of color schemes. Just like how you pick out matching colors when you paint a room or pic art/décor. You don’t want to make your choices randomly.
These are the basics for color schemes. You can move the wheel around to any color but if you look at Complementary, you can see these are on opposite sides. This type of scheme will make you stand out in a photo. If you are on a green background like trees and grass wearing purples would make you pop out of the photo. Or if you and your partner wore opposite colors, depending on the style you are going for.
With any Color scheme you build your base with neutrals and earth tones.
1. Monochromatic
Monochromatic color schemes use a single color with varying shades and tints to produce a consistent look and feel. Although it lacks color contrast, it often ends up looking very clean and polished. It also allows you to easily change the darkness and lightness of your colors.
2. Analogous
Analogous color schemes are formed by pairing one main color with the two colors directly next to it on the color wheel. You can also add two additional colors (which are found next to the two outside colors) if you want to use a five-color scheme instead of just three colors.
3. Complementary
You may have guessed it, but a complementary color scheme is based on the use of two colors directly across from each other on the color wheel and relevant tints of those colors. You can pick your two colors based on you and the background, or you and your partner.
4. Triadic or Triad
choosing 4 or 3 colors on opposite sides of the color wheel is tricky sometimes. Especially depending on how many family members you have. But if you account for the background sometimes people stumble into it.
