A Softer Image

We decided to do something fun on Thursdays and Fridays with this blog - Colorful Thursdays and Black and White Fridays! To kick this off, it makes sense to start with the basics: the color wheel.

You probably talked about this Isaac Newton creation. at some point in school. Colors that are across from each other are complimentary, etc. Well this can come in REALLY handy when you’re working on your wedding colors, and also will come in handy when taking pictures.

We’ll talk about how to use the color wheel more in future posts. Right now, we’re going to talk complimentary colors. These colors are opposite each other on the wheel. When you use these colors next to each other, they make each other more bright. When you layer them, they neutralize each other.

Use the color wheel when retouching your photos. You know when you have a photo and your face is just too red? Maybe you had a red blemish, or maybe you were oveheating, either way, you need to make the redness be gone. Well in Photoshop, there’s a really quick trick to use to combat this redness. See on the color wheel that green is directly opposite red? When you add more green to a very red area, it decreases the redness. This is why some makeup products to hid blemishes are green. I take a very soft brush - the size depends on the area I’m working on - and make its opacity 6-10%. Using the color green, I paint over that red area and neutralize the red. Work slowly to make sure you don’t do too much green or it isn’t blended well with the surrounding areas.

Also, say the color was wrong in your photo - overall, the picture is too yellow or too blue. Visit Image > Adjustments > Color Balance in Photoshop. Instead of just decreasing the strange color in your picture, combat it (neutralize it) by adding more of its complimentary color!