Photography Tips: Add Impact Using Red Colour

Have you ever thought how different colours might affect the acknowledgment of your images by the viewer? Have you ever noticed how photos with red colour in them for some reason immediately grab your attention? There is an answer to this phenomenon and in this article I want to take a look at this and explain the reasons.

Effect of colours on people’s behaviour has been a long time object of studies and researches. The way we percept a colour is connected with psychology and the way our brain works. Red colour among others such as orange and yellow is coming from the group of warm colours and has influence on human feelings and emotions.

From the ancient times red colour was associated with passion, romance and was the symbol of love, that’s why on Valentine’s Day we are surrounded by red hearts and red roses. Red colour has also ability of grabbing attention fast and is used to warn about a danger, for this reason road sign “stop” is in red colour. Another association that the red colour has been made with is courage and sacrifice, being probably connected to the red colour of blood.

Red colour trick was long known and used in our modern life, for example by those people, who are working in advertisement business to get more viewers. The same way it can be used in photography depending on the message you want to send and your personal attitude to red colour, because let’s face it, red colour is not to everyone’s taste because of its strength and intensity.

Following the approach of people in business you can use red colour to promote your photos and get more attention. The more of red colour is in the photo the more attention grabber your photo is going to be.

Let’s look at the portraits of people wearing red or being placed against a red background. It is scientifically proven that a woman wearing a red dress or photographed against a red background appears to be more attractive to men and vice versa.

Red looks great when used with selective colour. Photo with the main object in red colour and the rest of image in monochrome will most certainly grab viewer’s attention.

Photos of red flowers significantly stand out as well, what make a stronger impact than an image of a beautiful red rose?

Possibilities to use red colour in photography are endless, it’s just need to be done with taste and imagination. Having said that, it doesn't mean all your images now should have red colour in it to be noticed. Red colour is just another way to make your photos stand out and add an extra interest to them.