The beauty of colour

I spend a lot of time writing about black and white photography. You could say that’s my speciality. But I also love colour photography, and this is where I share some of my thoughts about colour – how to ‘see’ it, how to manage it and how to emphasise it.

We all see in colour. Most of us take pictures in colour. We take it for granted that colour is the most natural medium for images. And so it is – but it brings its own special challenges. Just as you need to think about composition in photography in order to create visually satisfying and compelling images, you also need to think about colour.

It’s easy, you might think. Colour is natural, it’s just… there. Not quite. Just as photographers need to arrange shapes and perspectives in a scene to make an effective composition, we also need to ‘arrange’ colours in a way that shows their true beauty and power. Sometimes that’s done with framing, sometimes with lighting, sometimes with careful editing.

Here are some examples. I hope you find them useful.