The Color RED 

 

red

Red with handpainted border

This holiday season is wrapped in red heart colored ribbons instilling messages of love and good will.

Red, both a pigment and light primary color, sits on top of the rainbow and the “Adobe Color Picker.” At its digital purist, red is 255 R, 0G, 0B.

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Red sits on top of the “Adobe Color Picker”

Red is an attention grabber. Food photographers know that red stimulates appetite and product photographers will use bold reds to help brand companies. Check out the logos for Canon, Costco, Netflix and Target. Portrait photographers use red to create flattering flesh tones. Red can emphasize a toddler’s vitality or convey (with a red sweater) a teen’s confidence. Juxtapose red with green to add contrast (green and red are complementary pairs and create a natural impact). Red, considered a warm color, creates an optical illusion of an object moving forward in a composition.

Red has the longest wavelength and is said to be the first color a baby sees. Red stirs emotions; it is powerful, seductive, and elegant. At its full intensity, red jostles the senses-red may even raise your blood pressure.

While both reddish, red is not the same as magenta; red is a primary and magenta is a secondary color of light. When mixing light primary colors, red light and blue light combined will create a magenta colored light. Reducing red in your digital file will increase the amount of cyan, while reducing magenta will add more green. (See the screenshots used to adjust the flesh tones.)

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Original photo

Photoshop

To reduce the reddish flesh tone, I move the red slider to the left, thus adding more cyan.

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Alternatively, to reduce the reddish flesh tone, I can add more green by moving the magenta slider to the right.

Enjoy your holiday and realize the potential of red.

Join me for my class “All About Color” to learn more about Color Theory.

Cheryl Machat Dorskind teaches the following classes at BPSOP:

“I just wanted to thank you for another wonderful class. I have to confess that each week when I read the new assignment, my first reaction was mild panic and a deep certainty that I would not be able to produce anything worthwhile that fit within the parameters you had set. But before I knew it, the ideas started to flow, and I quickly became obsessed (no, that isn’t too strong a word!) with exploring the possibilities. I can honestly say that the photos I produced in response to your assignments are among my favorites. Thanks for bringing out a creative side I didn’t know I had!”

Barbara Geiger
Understanding Color

“Thank you so very much for this course! It’s allowed me to take the blinders off and present my images for what I want them to be without being a slave to the “reality” of the camera. I would also add that in conjunction with your printing course, this has been the most useful course I’ve ever taken. Your notes are more than comprehensive and your comments and critiques are direct, clear, and always directed to the improvement of the art.”

Bill
After the click

” I want to thank you for this class and for your patience and availability to answer all of my questions. I have learned very much through this class. I have used LR in the past, but mostly for editing images. I now have a better grasp in the organization of my images, an even better understanding of editing images, and an understanding of the value of presets. I still have a lot to learn, but this has put me on the road to be able to improve my photography. Again, thank you! ”

Dale Yates
Lightroom Quickstart

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