The color wheel

Learning goal

You will be able to use the color wheel like a map and read the relationships between colors. You will explain the difference between the painters' paint wheel and the wheel of light and screens; you will recognize what kind of contrast or unity complementary colors standing opposite each other on the wheel, analogous colors standing side by side, and evenly spaced triadic colors build in a photo; you will see that these relationships are not a rule but a list of options; and knowing where different skins sit on the wheel, you will predict before the shot whether the color of the background in a portrait will bring the face forward or merge with it.

The question

At a market, you are photographing tangerines piled in blue plastic crates. In the photo the tangerines seem to glow; the orange looks more vivid than it really is. A few stalls along, the same tangerines sit in brown wicker baskets, and there their color is softer, almost one with the basket.

Why do some colors go well together? There is no single right answer to this question, because going well together is a matter of taste. But there is an explanation for why some colors bring each other forward when they come side by side, and why others blend into each other. In this lesson we will talk about the tool that gives this explanation, the color wheel, and the three basic relationships on it.

Context

In Lessons 11.1 and 11.2 we always thought of color on a single line: between orange and blue, and also between green and magenta. White balance erased a color by adding the color opposite it. This opposition is a small part of a much wider order. When you arrange all the colors around a wheel, every color has an opposite, two neighbors, and relatives standing at certain intervals.

The color wheel lets you see in advance how colors affect each other in a photo. When you decide what to take into the frame, what color to put in front of the subject, which wall to choose for a portrait, this map is useful. The map doesn't show the way; you decide where to go.

Simple explanation

Which wheel?

You may come across two separate color wheels. In painting classes, a paint wheel that takes red, yellow and blue as the primary colors is often taught; on this wheel green stands opposite red, purple opposite yellow, and orange opposite blue. Paints give color by absorbing light, and this wheel is meant to describe how they mix.

Light, on the other hand, produces colors by adding them. Screens and camera sensors work with red, green and blue light, and the wheel a photographer uses is this wheel of light. Here cyan stands opposite red, magenta opposite green, and yellow opposite blue; opposite orange there is a color between blue and cyan. The color sliders in editing programs, and white balance's orange–blue and green–magenta axes, come from this wheel. In this lesson we will work with the wheel of light; we will call a color's place on the wheel its hue.

What do complementary colors do?

Colors standing exactly opposite each other on the wheel are called complementary colors: red and cyan, green and magenta, blue and yellow, orange and a blue leaning toward cyan. The color difference between these pairs is the biggest difference possible. When they come side by side, the eye easily tells the two apart, and each looks more vivid because of the one next to it. That is why the tangerines in the market glowed in the blue crate.

The same effect is also a way of separating a subject from the background. If the subject is in one color, the closer the background comes to the color opposite it, the more the subject stands forward. But if both colors of a complementary pair share the frame equally and both are very saturated, the eye may struggle to choose where to look. That is why many photographers use one color of the pair as dominant and the other as a small accent; but this is a habit, not a necessity.

What do analogous and triadic colors do?

Colors standing side by side on the wheel are called analogous colors: yellow, orange and red, or blue, cyan and green. The color difference between them is small; when they stand together, the frame reads as a whole. An orange coat among yellowed autumn leaves, or the blue and green tones of the sea, build this kind of harmony. Here separating the subject comes not from a difference in color, but from a difference in brightness or from sharpness.

Three colors standing at equal intervals on the wheel, like the corners of a triangle, are called triadic colors: red, green and blue, or orange, purple and green. This trio gives more variety than a complementary pair and more contrast than analogous colors. The slides in a children's playground, or a market's fruit stall, often meet you with a spread of color like this. How the three colors share the frame decides how lively or scattered the photo will read.

Where does skin sit on the wheel?

Human skin, from the lightest to the darkest, usually sits in the orange region of the wheel, at hues close to each other. The difference between skins mostly shows up not in hue, but in brightness and saturation: dark skin is a darker and often more saturated orange-brown than light skin, but both face more or less the same direction. This is useful knowledge for portraits.

If the background is close to blue or cyan, that is the complement of skin, the face separates easily from the background on every skin. A brown, orange or terracotta wall, on the other hand, is an analogous color of skin and merges the face with the background. When a dark-skinned person stands in front of a dark brown wooden wall, or a light-skinned person in front of a beige wall, both the color and the brightness difference between skin and background shrink, and the face can blend into the background. This is sometimes a wanted warmth, sometimes an unwanted disappearance; you decide which by looking at what the photo will tell.

Visual evidence

You go back to the market. The owner of the tangerine stall, a dark-skinned man with a thick mustache, first stands in front of the brown wooden board behind his stall. In the frame you take, his face, the baskets and the board are in the same warm brown-orange family; the frame is soft and unified, but the man's face barely separates from the board. Between the edge of his cheek and the grain of the board there is no difference in either color or brightness; the eye holds on to the mustache and the eyes to find the face. Because the tangerines on the stall stay in the same family too, nothing stands forward.

You ask the man to step to the side, in front of the blue tarpaulin of the neighboring stall. Now the warm brown of his face stands clearly forward on the blue ground; the tangerine in his hand is the brightest point in the frame. The same man, the same light; what changed was the background's place on the wheel. The first frame tells of a warm, calm moment at a stall; the second is a portrait of a person. Which of the two frames you choose depends on what you want to tell: unity or separation?

Common mistakes

Summary

The color wheel shows the relationships between colors by arranging them on a circle; the one used in photography is the wheel built with red, green and blue light. Complementary colors standing opposite each other bring each other forward, analogous colors standing side by side build unity, evenly spaced triadic colors bring variety and movement; these are not rules, but effects that can be chosen. Because skins usually sit in the orange region of the wheel, a blue-cyan background separates the face on every skin, while a brown-orange background merges with it.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will find and photograph color relationships, and try the effect of the background in a portrait.

1. Find and photograph a scene where two complementary colors stand side by side; look for a framing where one color is dominant and the other small.
2. Photograph a scene made of analogous colors, and try to separate the subject with a difference in brightness or sharpness instead of color.
3. Find a scene where three colors stand at equal intervals, and look at how the colors share the frame.
4. Photograph a person first in front of a wall from their skin's color family, then in front of a surface close to blue or cyan.

Check yourself

• In the complementary frame, does one of the colors look more vivid than the other?
• In the analogous frame, with which difference did you separate the subject?
• In the portrait, when the color of the background changed, did the face's separation from the background change, on every skin?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. On the wheel of light, which color is the complement of blue?

• A) Orange
• B) Green
• C) Yellow
• D) Red

2. An orange coat among autumn leaves is an example of which color relationship?

• A) Analogous colors
• B) Complementary colors
• C) Triadic colors
• D) None of them

3. Why do orange tangerines in a blue crate look more vivid?

• A) Because the blue crate reflects more light
• B) Because orange and blue stand almost opposite each other on the wheel and bring each other forward
• C) Because the tangerines are fresher
• D) Because the white balance changed

4. If you see a dark-skinned person's face blending into the background in front of a dark brown wooden wall, which helps to separate them?

• A) Keeping the background in the same brown tone
• B) Raising the ISO
• C) Changing the white balance
• D) Moving the person in front of a surface close to blue or cyan, or a clearly brighter background

Answers

1. C — On the wheel of light, yellow stands exactly opposite blue; the wheel that puts orange opposite blue is the paint wheel.
2. A — Yellow, orange and red stand side by side on the wheel; together they build unity.
3. B — Orange's opposite lies between blue and cyan, and the difference between opposite colors is the biggest difference; the eye tells the two apart and each reads more vividly.
4. D — Because skin sits in the orange region, a background in the opposite color, or a difference in brightness, separates the face from the background.

Summary card

• Photography's wheel is the wheel of light: red–cyan, green–magenta, blue–yellow.
• Complementary: opposite each other, they bring each other forward.
• Analogous: side by side, they build unity; brightness or sharpness separates the subject.
• Triadic: evenly spaced, they bring variety and movement.
• Skins usually sit in the orange region: a blue-cyan background separates, a brown background merges.

Bridge to the next lesson

In this lesson we talked about what colors do to each other: opposite colors brought each other forward, neighboring colors blended into each other. But someone looking at a photo doesn't only see the relationship of colors; they also feel something: an orange evening can feel warm and close, a blue morning cool and distant. Do colors really carry a feeling, and if they do, is this feeling the same for everyone? The next lesson talks about the feeling of colors, and how much of this feeling comes from the light and how much from the viewer.