PART
ONE

COLOR
BIAS

PART
TWO

COLOR
PALETTE

complementary color = a color's opposite; color opposites activate each other and create dazzling effects.

Ctrl <i> = invert in Photoshop. This handy keyboard toggle yields not only the opposite hue but the opposite saturation and value as well.

 

hue = the color itself

value = the relative lightness or darkness of a color. Lighter colors (with more white added) are said to have a higher value. Darker colors (with more black added) are said to have a lower value.

saturation = the amount of color. A more intense version of the same red is said to be more saturated.

In digital art, three variables are also used. For screen displays, we define color according to the varying amounts of red, green and blue (RGB color).

For printing, we use a variation on this three variable system, calling the hues cyan, magenta and yellow (CMYK color). The K in CMYK stands for black (the absence of all color).

If you look at detailed descriptions of colors in Photoshop, you'll notice that all digital colors are described with a set of 3 numbers (2 or 3 digits each) that determine the amounts of red, green and blue (RGB again) in that particular color.

In the example here, you can see that the orange picked has a lot of red, about half as much green and only a little blue.

In the same window, you can also see the relative saturation (89%) and brightness (82%).

Perhaps the greatest limitation of a primary color concept is the idea that there is a single, pure, color red (yellow or blue).

A much more useful color concept is the color bias wheel.

With color bias, we think of the primary colors as pairs rather than as single pure colors.

Instead of one pure red, we see two: a red that leans toward orange and a red that leans toward purple. One red is biased toward orange and the other toward purple.

We all know the primary colors are red, green and blue. All other colors are mixtures of these three.

In fact, this is a limiting and ineffective way of thinking about color when you are actually using color in studio or digital art.

Color bias also helps us to consider the mood and emotional feeling that color can communicate.

Many people will say, for example, that the yellow biased toward orange feels warmer than the yellow biased toward green.

We can affect the mood of an image by altering the bias of the colors.

We'll be exploring this as one exercise in the color lab.

1	Select a photographic image with a wide colour range.
2	Use the magic wand tool (shift/click) to select all the red areas of the image. (Look for any areas that contain even hints of red.) Be sure also to select secondary colors that contain red. (Orange, for example, contains red so select the oranges.)
3	Bring up the "Color Balance" box (Ctrl B). Drag the sliders in either/both directions, noting the changes in the image. Note that cyan is a cool blue tending toward green. Magenta is a cool red tending toward purple. Be careful only to change the bias of the color. DO NOT change the color completely. For example, change the bias of the reds toward purple but do not go so far as to make it actually purple.
4	Choose the slider position you prefer and note the bias of the red which will either be toward violet or toward orange.
5	Save (do a "save as") your biased image as "bias_red".
6	Open your original (unbiased) image again and repeat steps 2-5, this time selecting all the blues.
7	Drag the sliders again, this time noting the changes to the blues (for blue, the bias will be toward violet or toward green).
8	Repeat steps 2-5 a third time with the yellow in the image. (For yellow, the "bias" will be toward orange or toward green.)
9	Expand the size of your canvas so you have room to type in some text.
10	Add text: Underneath or above each image, type in the biases that you chose. For example, type: RED biased toward violet BLUE biased toward green YELLOW biased toward orange
11	Add additional text that describes how, specifically, the mood of the image was changed by altering the color bias. For example: Mood in biased image is cooler and therefore calmer than the original
12	Assemble all four images into a quadtych. The four pieces of your quadtych should be: original reds biased blues biased yellows biased

1	Choose several photographs, each with a wide colour range.
2	Make a new Photoshop file called "custom palette".
3	Using the marquis tool, select a swatch of colour from your photo and paste a square of it into your new Photoshop file. You may choose pieces of images but the pieces should be single colors or variations on a single color. Do NOT paste pieces that are complex and contain many colors. Your squares should be swatches of one color at a time.
4	Paste a second copy of the same swatch and move it so it sits next to the first swatch. While this second swatcg is still selected, Ctrl I to "invert" the image to a colour negative. You will see the opposite or complementary color now. Note also that the inverse is opposite in other ways...not just in color. The two are opposite in hue (the "color" itself) value (the lightness or darkness of the color) saturation (the intensity of the color)
5	Remember to choose swatches that are relatively pure in color (single colors or ranges of color). Please do not use entire pictures (with many colors) for your swatches.
6	Continue selecting, inverting and adding to the palette until you have as many complementary pairs as possible. Work from several photographs.
7	Create at least 20 pairs.
8	Save your final Photoshop image with the twenty pairs.
9	Bonus marks for making the image into an interesting presentation or layout (maintaining the colors in pairs but playing with shape/arrangement etc...in the form of a visually-appealing layout).
10	You now have a custom palette with complementary colour pairs that you can use later to communicate emotion and visual impact.

1	Minimize damage Pure, bright or very strong colours have loud, unbearable effects when they stand unrelieved over large areas. But extraordinary effects can be achieved when they are used sparingly.
2	1+1=3 Placing of light, bright colours right next to large white areas produces unpleasant results, especially in large areas. The white area is often made into a glaring negative space (1+1=3).
3	Highlights in muted areas Pleasing and calming effects result when restrained color highlights are added to muted, gray areas or backgrounds.
4	Natural colors make images feel familiar, coherent and harmonious. Unnatural colours make images feel strange or disturbing.
5	Quiet and subtlety in large areas Colors in large areas (such as backgrounds) should do their work quietly, allowing stronger and brighter colours to stand out in smaller areas.
6	Avoid using both biases of a single color in a single image For example, red can be biased toward violet or toward orange. Avoid using both violet reds and orange reds in the same image. When we use both biases, the colors are said to "clash".
7	Intermingle colors in large areas Pictures created with two or more large enclosed areas in different colours will fall apart unless colours of one area are repeatedly intermingled in the other area.
8	Boundary lines Borders are most pleasing when they are made with darker values of the same colour(s) found inside the border.
9	Grayscale Don't underestimate the power of grayscale or muted color added to grayscale. More can often be communicated by what is not shown (and what is left to the imagination