I hate to question the details of a challenge, but I thought complementary colours were based on the colour wheel - colours which are opposite each other, as this page describes;
e.g.red and cyan (where cyan is the mixture of green and blue)
green and magenta (where magenta is the mixture of red and blue)
blue and yellow (where yellow is the mixture of red and green)
It seems they're using complementary colours for paint, not light. With paint, it works as indicated in the challenge. With light (which would seem to make more sense as we are all photographing light) it goes by the colour wheel above.
Oh geez. Complementary colors II was my first challenge. I hadn't been around DPC very long, and didn't know any better. I'm glad that this time, the complements were defined. Might cut down a wee bit on the arguing and DNMC. Or maybe not...
look in the upper right corner of my photo here. there is your color wheel. THe challenge language is correct, "red/green, blue/orange, yellow/purple" are strict complimentary colors, meaning that they don't work well together, but they contrast and make the contrasted subject jump off the page. As you will recall, there are primary colors, red, blue and yellow, on a triangle.
You don't mix red and green to get yellow, you have your positions wrong.
The chart or wheel posted by GIS boy is skewed. Red is not next to yellow on a traditional color wheel; green is not primary. You get green from blue and yellow.
Look up color theory, maybe utilizing more than the internet.
Just make sure you definately use the colour wheel, the result of ignoring it last time lead to my second lowest score ever here on dpc. If I sound bitter, it´s because I am :D I am SO gonna kick ass this time!
Just make sure you definately use the colour wheel, the result of ignoring it last time lead to my second lowest score ever here on dpc. If I sound bitter, it´s because I am :D I am SO gonna kick ass this time!
Hey relax... you're only playing us, no need for so much energy input mate.. just do similar shot as you did last time, then we stand a chance..
Mine went wrong last time because of editing on a lappy.. that wont be happening this time I assure you.
One thing to bear in mind, the challenge is for complementary (spelt with an e) colors not complimentary (spelt with an i), which if I remember correctly from last time made a difference, correct me if I am wrong. I didnt enter the last one but seem to remember picking up this ont he forums when everyone was discussing it.
Just make sure you definately use the colour wheel, the result of ignoring it last time lead to my second lowest score ever here on dpc. If I sound bitter, it´s because I am :D I am SO gonna kick ass this time!
Hey relax... you're only playing us, no need for so much energy input mate.. just do similar shot as you did last time, then we stand a chance..
Mine went wrong last time because of editing on a lappy.. that wont be happening this time I assure you.
Hahaha, what can you be thinking goading me on like that. It´s like drinking lighter fluid and then pissing on a fire, you must be crazy!!! You are going down mista :)
Again it says "use two complementary colors". Be careful about including any other colors.
Last time I entered this:
Of course, it's abstract, so I wasn't expecting to win with it, but it got 5 ones, 14 twos, and 21 threes. At least one person verbalized it as "too much yellow" for the red/green! So how many of those low votes were for that?
I wish it just said "use complementary colors" to eliminate this argument.
Isn't this all related to (again) whether the colors being talked about are additive or subtractive?
In some ways, but also due to the general sloppyness of descriptions used in art theory and the availability of particular colours.
The strict 'colour science' complementary colours are the ones described at the start of this thread and the loosely accepted art ones are those described in the challenge description.
It is odd to use the paint complementary colours for a photographic/ light based contest, but that's what seems to have been picked.
Complimentary and complementary are different words (but not different sets of colours)
look in the upper right corner of my photo here. there is your color wheel. THe challenge language is correct, "red/green, blue/orange, yellow/purple" are strict complimentary colors, meaning that they don't work well together, but they contrast and make the contrasted subject jump off the page. As you will recall, there are primary colors, red, blue and yellow, on a triangle.
You don't mix red and green to get yellow, you have your positions wrong.
The chart or wheel posted by GIS boy is skewed. Red is not next to yellow on a traditional color wheel; green is not primary. You get green from blue and yellow.
Look up color theory, maybe utilizing more than the internet.
Here you are mixing additive and subtractive colour wheels. They are not the same and lead to different sets of complementary colours. There are several other colour wheels, come to that not just these two.
Isn't this all related to (again) whether the colors being talked about are additive or subtractive?
In some ways, but also due to the general sloppyness of descriptions used in art theory and the availability of particular colours.
The strict 'colour science' complementary colours are the ones described at the start of this thread and the loosely accepted art ones are those described in the challenge description.
It is odd to use the paint complementary colours for a photographic/ light based contest, but that's what seems to have been picked.
Complimentary and complementary are different words (but not different sets of colours)
Before everyone gets carried away (again) on definitions of Complementary Colors take a look at the several threads that popped up last time we had this challenge.
And remember, complementary (with an "e") refers to things that go well together, and complimentary (with an "i") is about compliments (e.g. "What a great photo!"). ---An expansion on what Gordon said.
There are are other combination though, such as:
blue/yellow
Here we have two primary colors.
purple/orange
Here we have two secondary colors.
These are the two most popular besides the ones stated in the challenge.
It starts to get complicated when working with tertiary (one primary, one secondary mixed together)colors. These too can be used in a complementary setup. One of my painting teachers spent a good amount of time on color theory. The basic technical rule is pick any color you want and the second color cannot have that color mixed in it.
So, red can also compliment blue-green, yellow, blue-violet, and blue, red-orange. There are still other possibilities.
You will get the right colors by looking on the color wheel. Any two colors that are opposite will be complementary, that is if you have an accurate wheel. You can get one at an art store for very cheap or look online. Don't use a computer wheel like the one in the post; the colors are not spaced right.
Now after all that, I'm confused. Can we use any complementary colors or just the ones stated? I know there are alot of people out there that like to quote the challenge description and ding people on small technicalities. I look at the details as a kind of guideline anyways. I notice alot of people do, like using the challenge keyword in the title, but not in the picture, just an example... But going back I see that the color pairs listed are "your main sets of complementary colors are", meaning there are others out there.
The reason for the debate is because there are two approaches to mixing colours: additive and subtractive. Light is additive (you add more frequencies of light), where the end result of all colours is white; and print is subtractive (you take away frquencies) where the end result is black.
So primaries in light are red blue green
Primaries in print are red blue yellow
Something interesting I noticed while playing with the 'Invert' function in PS is that colours invert to their opposite colour in the colour wheel (the light colour wheel, not the paint one)
The answer is in the Callenge discription of what basic color combinations to use.
Challenge: Complementary Colors III
Type: Exclusive Open Challenge Exclusive Open Challenge
Rules: Basic Editing
Submission Deadline: Tuesday, April 25th, 2006
Description: Use two complementary colors to compose your photograph. For those of you who need a refresher, your main sets of complementary colors are red/green, blue/orange, yellow/purple.
I am sure that many shades of these colors will be acceptable.
Although I recognize yellow-green/ red-violet as complementary colors, many people will only know of the "main sets". Having seen the response (comments) to an entry in the original Complementary Colors Challenge who used this particular set, I have decided to stick to one of the basic sets mentioned in the challenge description.
