Commercially Playing with COLOR, part 2

Utilizing Dramatic Color

Utilize dramatic color in a commercial #photography assignment to draw attention!  These hooks themselves are glued to a large sheet of optical quality glass. The glass has then been thoroughly cleaned and mounted vertically between two light stands, 4 feet off the ground.   Five feet behind this assembly is a background of black seamless paper.  A blue Rosco gel in front of a powerful strobe with a grid spot has been aimed at exactly the right position on the background to emphasize the hooks and their features.  By using black seamless, more power is needed to create the proper blue, but it also produces a rich saturation with nice fall-off to the dark edges.

Next we lighted the hooks themselves so that they’re not just silhouettes against the blue. They need to show texture and detail. This requires careful placement of the lights to avoid reflections in the glass.  Since angle of incidence equals angle of reflectance, it’s realistic to expect that “what you see is what you get”  is in play here.   Some test shots were required to confirm that all was as expected, to refine the blue spot placement and the drape of the cords.   As is common in #advertising and #commercial photography, the conceptualizing, construction and checking took the most time, but the results were worth it.  The image was designed to sell thousands of these adjustable tie-downs. It was well worth the investment by the client.

Psychology of color

An interesting lesson learned early. Red attracts attention the most quickly, but then repels it most quickly. What a surprise that was! Blue attracts attention second, and very nearly as quickly, but retains attention longer than any other. Blue also suggests peace, water, tranquility, and reliability. Care to guess why we used blue in the ad above?

Green suggests health, tranquility, power and nature. The color is a reason this china is appealing, and why we used a rich green shining through the glass beads in the background.

Jeff Behm Photography is a professional photography service providing advertising imagery across two continents. Call 724-730-8513 to discuss your needs, visit www.jeffbehm.com or email jeff@jeffbehm.com

To see posts on #jewelry, #food, #product or #headshot photography visit https://www.behmphoto.com/sometimes-you-just-need-a-great-steak/ or https://www.behmphoto.com/jewelry-in-focus-front-to-back/ or https://www.behmphoto.com/headshots-on-location/

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