The Influence of Color
The art of photography largely concentrates on subject. What you shoot, how you stage it, light it, frame it. The post process techniques we tend to spend our time with are the “upper Lightroom” controls, dealing with exposure, contrast, curves and the like. When we get a little deeper, into the VSCO world of things, we get only slightly more into color, but it’s mostly a desaturated, low dynamic range (no true blacks or white) look that emulates that analog film quality we love so much. And that’s usually the extent of how much we think about the look of our imagery. Which leaves out, almost entirely, the thing that will distinguish your particular look more than anything — your color palette.
The reason it’s hard to embrace is that by its nature, a color palette is limiting. And most people, especially those new to photography, do not want to limit themselves. But it is not a bad idea to consider how you express yourself through your choices in color.
A limited color palette is an opinion. And people need to know your opinion in order to understand your vision. Your palette is your statement. And in art, you often say more with less. Or, as they say in music, “the notes you don’t play.”
But while most photographers know how to dial in their lighting, their focal length…
