The magic of photographing the color red.

Red sky at night

Red; a magical colour to photograph.

 

Bright bold and beautiful. Red is a strong and alluring colour. It stands out from the crowd so to speak. Yellow is the brightest colour in the spectrum, but red is the strongest and most eye catching of all the colours. To me it represents joy whenever I wear red or see red I have a kind of lift in my spirits. Personally I really love this colour.

In photography

Generally it is used in small areas and small doses. A red shirt, a red flower, a red hat, whatever it is. Filling the entire frame with red is not the general rule. It very quickly overpowers everything else in the image and so is used sparingly by most photographers.

In a world where we consume images in a fast and furious way, red has the power to stop the viewer in their tracks, and make them  stay a little longer than they normally would.

The well known photographer Steve McCurry apparently regularly adds red to his photographs as he is well aware of the effect it has on his viewers.

Red represents, boldness, passion, romance

But also anger, hatred and fire. It is at the lower end of the spectrum having a longer wave length and because of its bold brightness is often used as warning and danger signals.

Below are my images wherein I have captured the colour red and tried to make it the predominant entity in the image. I found photographing this colour challenging and also thought provoking in a most positive way. Very often the red, one sees with the natural eye is not the same colour as the red that is produced in a photographic image. Therefore editing to its truest state can be a little tricky. Try using the warm and cool slider to get the exact colour you want the image to be.

Have fun and stay cool!

 

Snow and a red sunset New Zealand Southern Alps

A red sunset with the mountains alongside Hakatere Heron Road in New Zealand.

Very red sky and three white terns
Sunset after the Melbourne fires

Taken at Hallett Cove beach after numerous bushfires had raged during the week.

Sunset after some terrible fires near Melbourne

Another year another lot of bush fires. Taken at Innes Lake after the bush fires in Melbourne and the wind having swept smoke over to South Australia.

Two red sun chairs at a sandy beach
Red sky and a yacht sails by
Red sails
Red towel on the beach
Red front of the boat and a sun hat
Red chair and umbrella
Red chair and striped beach towel
Girl in red jumper
Red sky and yellow field

And now for some images I’ve simply had fun with. I used a few household items and tried different angles and different lighting.

Why not challenge yourself with some different ideas with photography. I found this photoshoot quite interesting and not at all like my usual landscape photography.

Red chair and pile of red cushions
Red vintage kitchen chair with some autumn leaves
Red glasses on some papers
Red book and coffee with some grey material
Book and coloured material red.
Fishing book and red material
Red chair cushion and some leaves

 

If you are interested in learning more about the colour red in photography this is a great article. READ HERE

All images are taken by Wendy Philip. No AI generated images.