How to Find the Prefect Color?

How to Find the Prefect Color?
Before & After BAmagazine.com
Getting that just-right color is part art, part science.
Hidden in your photo is the color palette you need. How to get it out?

No single visual element has more effect on a viewer than color. Color gets attention, sets a mood, sends a message. But what colors are the right ones? The key is that color is relational. Colors don’t exit in a vacuum but are always seem with others colors. Because of this, you can design a color-coordinated document based on the colors in any element on the page. Here’s how.
选择出最合适的颜色既是一门艺术、也是一门科学，你所需要的颜料板（color palette）正藏身于你的图片之中，你如何才能获得它呢？
对一个观察者而言，没有任何单个视觉元素比颜色（color）更有效的了。颜色吸引着注意力，表达情感，并且传递出信息。那么，什么颜色才是最合适的呢？关键的一点是一种颜色并不是空洞地存在于真空中，而是总何其它颜色彼此共存。正因于此，你可以为一个页面上的任何颜色设计相应的颜色，从而获得相互协调的颜色总体观感。本文正要向你展示是如何做到这一点的。

SITUATION
Here’s the situation: we have an academic schedule for a women’s college to design, and for a photo we have this no-nonsense, freckle-faced model. The goal is to look fresh, alive and personal(no buildings and groups shots)while conveying the sense that the program is serious and businesslike. A note of trendiness will be good. Color is involved in all of it.

案例情形：
如你所见（见上图），在一份女子大学的学生设计作业中，我们有一张表情严肃正经、面部布满雀斑的人物图像。设计要达到的目标是使像中人物看起来精神充沛、富有活力而个性十足（没有建筑物和其它人物），而且要传达出严肃认真的感觉。当然，如果显得时髦也会非常的棒。要达到所有这些目的，我们就要使用颜色。

LOOK CLOSE, CLOSER, CLOSEST
Every photo has a natural color palette. First step is to find it and organize it. Zoom in your photo, and you’ll be astonished by how many colors you see.
At normal viewing distance(left) we see a few dozen colors: skin tones, red hair, blue eyes, blue jacket, but zoom closer, and we see millions! First step is to reduce all those colors to a manageable few; you want 16, 32, 64 tops. In Photoshop, first duplicate the photo layer(so you don’t lose the original), then select Filter> Pixelate > Mosalc (right). A large Cell Size gives you very few colors; If you need more, reduce the size.

PULL OUT THE COLORS
Now extract colors with the eyedropper tool. Work from the biggest color(the one you see most of) to the smallest. For contrast, pick up dark, medium and light pixels of each.

Work first on the big colors. These are the ones you see at a glance; her skin and hair colors and blue jacket. Then do the small colors-her eyes, lips, the highlights in her hair and soft shadows. You can see in this image a light side and a shadow side; it’s subtle, but pay attention. Sort your results by color, then each color by value(light to dark). Discard look-alikes. You’ll be thrilled by what you find.

TRY EACH ONE ON
Place the photo on a swatch of each color. The results are pretty, aren’t they? What’s fun is that this will always look good, because the colors you’re using are already there.

Warm colors
These are the warm colors-pinks, salmons, sepias, browns----of the red-haired model. The warmer colors make her look softer and more feminine. These colors would be good for a cosmetic message or a caring message.

Cool colors
The cool colors----blues, mainly----make for a more serious, businesslike relationship and convey a direct, to-the-point message. Note that as the values get darker, her face gets perceptually brighter and appears to rise off the page toward you.

ADD TO THE COLORS
The next step is to add more colors. Select any of the colors, and locate it on the color wheel. The purpose of a color wheel is to show you a color’s relationship to other colors.
Pick any of the photo’s colors----let’s use this blue----and find its general vicinity* on the color wheel. We’ll call this the base color. We already know that the base color goes with the photo. Our job now is to find colors that go with the base color. Keep in mind that if type or other graphic is involved (pretty typical), you’ll need both dark and light colors for contrast.
*Because the wheel is deliberately basic, you will rarely make an exact math. It’s only a guide.

CREATE COLOR PALETTES
From your base color, you can now create an exciting range of coordinated color palettes. Values can mix. For example, medium blue works with light teal and dark violet.

Monochromatic

Fist are the dark, medium and light values of the base color. This is a monochromatic palette. It has no color depth, but it provides the contrast of dark, medium and light that’s so important to good design.

Analogous

One color step either side of the base color are its analogous colors share undertones(here, blue-green, blue, and blue-violet), which create beautiful, low-contrast harmony. Analogous palettes are rich and always easy to work with.

Complement

Directly opposite the base color is its complement----in this case, the orange range. What the complement brings is contrast. A color and its complement convey energy, vigor and excitement. Typically, the complement is used in a smaller amount as an accent; a spot of orange on a blue field, as shown above.

Split complement

One step either way are the complement’s own analogous colors. This palette is called a split complement. Its strength is in the low-contrast beauty of analogous colors, plus the added punctuation of an opposite color. In this case, the blue would most likely be used as the accent.

Complement/analogous

This mixed palette is the same as the split complement but with more color. Its added range yields soft, rich harmony on the warm side and sharp, icy contrast on the cold side, an intense and exciting complement.

Analogous/ complement

Colors analogous to our base color make cool harmony punctuated by a hot spot of complementary color. Keep in mind that opposite of the same value tend to fight but complement when different (below). This is why you want to eyedropper dark, medium and light values of each color.

EDIT AND APPLY
Design the page, and now it’s time to make color choices. How to pick? The key is to think message. Weight each against the original purpose by asking, which colors meet the goal?
All business-Blue is everyone’s favorite color. What’s interesting here is that blue and orange are native to the photo, giving it excellent natural contrast. The blue background swallows her jacket, allowing her intense gaze to lift right off the page. Handsome and businesslike.

Serious-This palette began in the deep red of her hair, and for an accent took two steps toward yellow. Her eyes and jacket, which on blue receded into the background, now stand in contrast. Note that the red in her hair is a mere highlight, but filling the page it acquires real weight. Serious, warm, draws the reader in.

Intense-The highlights in her hair carry this page; the blue accent lends contrast and depth. An unexpected point of interest is the yellow headline, which seems cut out of the photo. Dimensionally flat, this mix is intense and engaging (and would win the design contest),but it takes a during client to choose it.

Casual-Analogous to the blue-a step toward green-is teal, a beautiful color not in the photo. Its difference adds depth and vibrancy and relaxes the message somewhat; it’s trendier now, more approachable. Her eyes, which against blue looked blue, now look green. Type color, still light orange, is a soft contrast.

Pretty-One step the other way is blue-violet, another color not in the photo. Blue-violet is a shift toward red; the result is s slightly flatter image, because face, hair and back-ground are now more alike. Blue-violet is a cool color normally associated with softness, femininity, and springtime (with undertones of freshness).

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