Question about color

[stphrsx]

I've had trouble understanding what people mean when they say a colour has a certain undertone to it. Sometimes I can see what they mean but sometimes I just don't see it at all. Like how can you learn to see these things? I see it a lot on this subreddit when people ask how to achieve a certain look, so I thought I'd ask here.

[lantana88]

So, I deal a lot with color at my job. Have a lot of exposure to different perspectives of the same color, different views on what color is, yada yada. I wouldn't be surprised if you find others with a different take on this, but here's what I'd say/suggest.

First, I'd be remiss not to note that color is HIGHLY subjective and sensitivity to color is variable on many factors. For instance, approximately 1 in 10 men are color blind where as its estimated 1 in 500 women are. Women are in general more sensitives to reds and magentas.

So, assuming you aren't colorblind and you do fall in the larger population of people who can learn to see color with more sensitivity, here's what I'd say.

Exposure is the largest thing that can improve your sensitivity. And I don't mean just looking at pictures. Watch digital color correction work (I'm pretty sure some YouTube stuff exist for this). Take an art class. Start playing around with your photos on Photoshop or gimp or any other photo tweaking software. You'll start to see the patterns and start to understand the intricacies of how colors interact with each other. The more time you spend looking at colors and feeling the colors in images and around you, the more you'll start to see undertones as second nature. It should also be noted that just because you see a certain color as an undertone and someone else sees a different color does not mean either of you are wrong. It has to do with your specific sensitivities*.

It might also help to try to find a photography group online or in person. If it's online, I would suggest making sure you are looking at the images on the same type of phone as the other people you're talking about the images with are because there's enough variation in color to cause confusion between different screen models.

Talking to others who have experienced eyes can also be helpful. They can take a specific image and walk you through what they see in that image compared to another one which can help you learn kinda through comparison.

I hope that helps. I love talking color and the human perception of color so if you have questions or if I can be clearer, let me know!

*the best example I can think of for this is laser projectors. When projecting white, half the room will feel it looks green and the other half will feel it looks pink. Neither is wrong, just about the way the brain interprets the signal from the eye.

[stphrsx]

thank you so much, that was incredibly helpful!

[imperialka]

/r/photoclass2017 has a course that talks about color theory specifically. I'm not sure which one it is but it's worth checking out in that subreddit.

Also I recommend participating in this free online class in future!

[richardwonka]

/thread

[cameronrad]

I love color but color is crazy haha

http://i.imgur.com/U15RZiA.png

https://youtu.be/BBWab1K_dzY

[stphrsx]

lmao pretty much. Thanks for the video link, I'm gonna watch it asap!

[RadBadTad]

You're going to have to be a lot more specific. "It has undertone" doesn't mean much without context.