The best & worst colors for self-portraits
Because I participate in the 365 Days project over at Flickr, and have been making an attempt at it every single year since January 2007 (no lie), I have learned a lot about colors and photograph. In general, some colors photograph great, while others do not. For the record, my equipment consists of a Nikon D40x and an SB-600 speedlight. Most of my photographs are taken in the early afternoon, with the benefit of the natural sunlight that comes into my kitchen; or in the evening or later at night, in my bathroom, where bright lights + light bouncing creates some incredible illumination.
So from my personal experience, color clashing & problems aren’t a result of lighting so much as them just not being good colors to photograph. Not for mostly close-up self-portraits, anyway. So, the colors I stay away from — and would recommend that you stay away from — are:
- red
- purple
- green
- black*
Let me explain why black is on the list. Black is actually an awesome color, especially for highly contrasting and B&W photographs. But I would not recommend using it in photography because of its tendency to show every little piece of lint or animal fur that may be present on your top. You may throw on a black top and think it looks great, you may even take a lint roller to it just to make sure that you have gotten rid of all of the extra bits. But when it comes time to view those photographs you took, you’re going to quickly discover just how much lint and hair your favorite black top is harboring.
So what colors would I recommend? Blue, gray, white, and orange. Pastels work nicely too, especially since you can easily add some vibrance to them in the post-processing.
Filed Under: General