Tomorrow I'm giving a lecture about color -- specifically, I'm talking to designers about how to create color palettes. The talk is more concerned with aesthetics (i.e. what color combinations are striking) than tools (i.e. how to pick colors in Photoshop). But there will be some tools talk. Since there are many designers here, I'd love to know all your color-related tips. As the Xmas season is coming, I am sharing one of my own tips inside...
Here's my tip: I like complementary colors. Complementary colors are color "opposites," by which I mean they lie on opposite sides of the color wheel from each other. As you can see from the wheel
here, cyan is the opposite of red. Using these opposites together, in the same design, can often lead to striking effects. The trouble is, if you have a base color, how do you find its complement (more precisely than eyeballing it on a color wheel)? Here's how I do it in Photoshop:
1) Pick your base color (the color for which you want to find a complement) with the eyedropper tool, so that the color is loaded into the foreground-color chip. Or just pick any color you want to be the base.
2) Click on the background-color chip. The color-chooser dialogue will appear. Leave the dialogue open, but roll your mouse outside of it and you'll see the eyedropper cursor again. Click it on the foreground color clip (that you set to the base color in step one). Now your background color will be the same as your foreground color.
3) In the dialogue, look at the Hue number. If it's LESS THAN 180, add 180 to it and type the resulting number into the Hue field. If it's GREATER THAN 180, subtract 180 from it and type the result into the Hue field.
Example 1: Hue = 20. (Less than 180.)
20 + 180 = 200.
So type 200 into the Hue field.
Example 2: Hue = 210. (Greater than 180.)
210 - 180 = 30.
So type 20 into the Hue field.
Click Ok to close the dialogue. Now the colors in the foreground and background chips are complements.
Note: This step works because Hue is a degree (of the color's position around the color wheel). The complement, being at the opposite end of the color wheel, is 180 degrees away from the base color. You can get 180 degrees away by either adding (moving clockwise around the wheel) or subtracting (moving counter-clockwise) 180 from the original number. But you must make sure that the result isn't greater than 360 or less than zero. This is why you must add or subtract, depending on the degree of the base color.
4) Select the gradient tool and the option to make a gradient using your foreground and background colors. Drag a linear gradient across your document. You can prove that this is a gradient between two complements, because complement-gradients always meet in the middle at 50% gray. Eyedropper the middle and check that it's 50% gray.
5) The middle area of the gradient (the third of it that's to either side of that 50% gray part) is generally the best part to find good colors. At the extreme ends, the colors are unmixed. But nearing the middle, you'll see all sorts of interesting mixtures of the two original colors.
6) Save this document and whenever you need to find another complement, just open it and apply the Hue/Saturation effect to it. In Hue/Sat, drag the Hue slider. This will rotate the gradient around the color wheel, showing you tons of cool complements.
posted by Specklet at 3:41 PM on November 15, 2005 [1 favorite]