Using dominant and recessive colours in photography
Dominant colours are those that don’t change when placed next to other colours. They stand out and draw the attention; red in particular, or any primary colour. Recessive colours are the opposite; they are the colours you don’t really notice like soft greens and pale greys.
A photographer needs to work with colours not against them.
Don’t try and combine lots of dominant colours unless you are aiming for a confusion of clashing ideas. If your subject is red don’t combine it with other dominant colours.
Pick one dominant colour and use it to draw attention to your focal point. If your focal point is not a dominant colour you will need to use lots of other visual cues to make it stand out and ensure you don’t have any dominant colours elsewhere in the frame. Other visual cues include making it big in the frame, using leading lines to point to it, using lighting or contrast to highlight it or making it the sharpest element in the image.
Recessive colours do just that - they recede. Put them in the background so the dominant colours don’t need to compete.
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