The illustration I am trying to make in all of this is that a simplicity of color can be just as powerful as a huge rainbow of colors – and sometimes, even more so.  Sometimes, a uniformity of color can have an impact and a power that all the wild variations thrown together cannot induce a positive reaction.  As in all things photographic, the best way to demonstrate is through imagery.  here are a few examples of the “Power of Color”  In the interests of keeping things consistent, I am working hereunder the RGB principle of Red, Green, and Blue as the three primary colors, and will look at these in comparison to a scene of multiple colors.  Ready?  let’s go!

Red

The red of a rose – simple, elegant, classic, and the lines certainly do not hurt the composition.  Like the shot?  Think it works better than a multiple-colored scene.  Take a look:

Mixed

Sure, I cheated a little bit by putting some colors together that don’t exactly complement each other, but hopefully it illustrates that a hegemony of color isn’t always a good thing.  That’s just one example though, right?  Let’s look at some more perhaps less convincing samples to see if the theory holds true:

Green

A green anole sits on a green bed of leaves.  This one has been accepted at iStock (under an account since closed), so let’s just assume that this one “works”.    And here, we have a counterpart to the almost pure green:

Mixed

Oooh…a tougher call because these colors complement each other better.  Yeah the scene is mitigated by the car bumper, but still – it’s a nice combo of green, red, blue, black, and white.  Your eyes kind of go all over the place don’t they?  Hmmm…maybe it’s not as tough a call after all.  Colors can distract you sometimes…

One more set…

Blue

Again, we’ve got some simple colors here…very much a blue-dominant scene, albeit with different shades, but for the most part blue.  I know some could argue that the presence of shades means different colors and while technically true, on the color spectrum these are closer to being the same color than they are different colors.  And the gray – pretty much color-neutral, and not a factor

Mixed

It gets tougher here because there isn’t as much color variation but I don’t have a lot of blue in my portfolio of work that includes other colors, so I had to go with one I’ve used before as reference.  It’s actually a pretty cool scene because sunsets in South Carolina are not easy to capture favorably as they almost always have unfavorable skylines.  This one from the ocean looking in at the marshlands was an exception to the rule.  Sure, it’s pretty (one of my favorites from SC), but look, the blues grab your eyes, then the oranges, and you can even see a hint of green in the foreground.  It starts to get distracting with the lighter water in the foreground too.  (Yes, I know, we are always our own worst critics).

The point that I’ve hopefully driven home though, is that you can have beautiful scenes with either a mixture or a simplicity of color.  When in doubt though…try to go for simpler compositions of color.  Too much can be a bad thing.  At least that’s my take.  What’s yours?

Purists may scorn such activities, and while there are some situations where editing a photo significantly can have moral, ethical, and professional consequences (such as photo journalism), I can’t help but wonder how Photoshop came to have such a bad association.  Clearly, there are differences of opinion across the spectrum on what lines shouldn’t be crossed (or “photoshopped”).  Overall though, I would say that Photoshop is not innately a bad thing (whether you think of it as a software application or a verb).

I said just a moment ago that I always try to get the picture right when in camera.  It’s not that I am opposed to pixel editing, but I’d rather avoid it if I can.  There are times (for me) though when some things cannot be avoided.  Take for instance a ballgame we went to just last weekend.  The Milwaukee Brewers were in town and it made for a great birthday present and combination Father’s day gift for Tracy and the visiting in-laws.

Being one to always take a camera in tow, I did.  A beautiful sunset ensued at the game and of course, I had to take a few shots.  When I got to skim through things the other day, noticed something in the scene that I wished wasn’t there – power lines! So, the decision had to be made – will it significantly help the composition to remove those lines?  For me, the answer was yes.  So, into Photoshop I went, and after a few minutes of editing, produced the results (click on the picture for a larger view).

Before Photoshop:

And after:

It may not seem like much to others, but to me, the shot looks a lot better without the power line.  So, what’s your take on this?  Is Photoshop a bad word?  Does the picture look better, the same or worse?  Sound off in the comments!  Keep on shooting too and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!