photo of green leafed plants inside building

Photograph by: Felix Dubois-Robert

We often take color for granted.

As I write this I look out my window and see nothing but winter's palette of white, gray, brown and black. How long has it been since we have been surrounded by green trees, colorful flowers and blue sky?

Aside from the presence and absence of color there is color theory, cultural associations with color, emotional association with color and accessibility of colors.

The following links cover important aspects of color. Look at each link and think about how you can intentionally use the properties of color in your photography. The key is to use color intentionally and to do that you need to understand what color is and how it operates.

Under the Camera Technical section of this module I will discuss the way the camera collects and processes color information.

Color Theory

Cultural Associations of Color

Emotions of Color

Color Psychology: Does It Affect How You Feel?
Why Is Blue The Worlds Favorite Color?

Accessibility of Color

from Accessible Design 101: How To Create Visual Content For Every Audience.

"When it comes to illustrations, images, graphs, and other non-textual elements, you’ll want to ensure that people who are color-blind or visually impaired can enjoy your design too. After all, they comprise a large contingent of your audience. An estimated 8% of men and 0.5% of women have some form of color vision deficiency, according to Colour Blind Awareness.

Take a look at how those who are color-blind might see some of your images, compared to those who are not:

Deuteranopia, also called “red/green color blindness,” is the most common type. People with deuteranopia tend to mix up colors that have some red or green in them. “So someone with red/green colour blindness will probably confuse blue and purple because they can’t ‘see’ the red element of the colour purple. See the example of pink, purple and blue pen cases [above] to understand this effect,” Colour Blind Awareness explains.

So for instance, to design for this population, you won’t want to place blues and purples in direct contrast, especially when those elements need to be distinguished — blue text on a purple background, for instance. You should also avoid juxtaposing red and green. Someone with deuteranopia wouldn’t be able to see the number 74 in this image:

The less-common tritanopia is also called “blue/yellow color blindness,” though as in the case of deuteranopia, this doesn’t fully describe their experience. “The most common colour confusions for tritanopes are light blues with greys, dark purples with black, mid-greens with blues and oranges with reds,” according to Colour Blind Awareness.

This is why you should avoid juxtaposing oranges and reds, or blues and greens.

Monochrome designs that include variations on a single color are another great way to make accessible designs for the color-blind.

Now that you understand a little more about how it works, here’s a handy list of color combinations to avoid, courtesy of 99designs:

Green + Red
Green + Brown
Light Green + Yellow
Blue + Green
Blue + Purple
Black + Green
Grey + Green
Grey + Blue

Not sure what your design will look like to someone who is color-blind? Upload it into this color-blindness simulator. "