Whisper of Color

If you’ve been to art school, the concept of color theory isn’t an unknown. Working artists know that the practical use of color has little overlap with the theoretical.

Color isn’t a science. It’s not objective and it’s far from absolute.

Concerning what is “good color,” let me paraphrase a famous legal opinion from the 1960s, “I know it when I see it.”

Color in portraiture is usually about the accurate representation of skin tones. That’s often the last thing I’m considering when a subject is in front of my camera.

I like to take in all the chromatic cues I can find, average them out and see which one speaks to me first.

In this case, it was the voice of the scarf that got my attention.

By the way, I heard a whisper, not a shout.

About the author: I am Stephen Kennedy, an experienced photographer with more than 2500 completed sessions in all 50 US states.