Photo taken by Kathleen Zimmerman. A bee and flowers. June 2014

Color plays an important role in every aspect of our lives. I found a good example of an image that incorporates a lot of color. This is an image I took at a park about four years ago of a bee and flowers. I chose to look at this image because of the vibrant and saturated colors. The three main colors in this image are violet, yellow, and green. These colors are all Near Complements of each other as well as primary and secondary colors. Near Complements are colors that sit near each other on the color wheel.

The yellow of the bee is an example of a primary color (yellow, blue, red). And the purple and green are both secondary colors (mixed from primary colors). The green background of the image is a good example of shade. We can see that more black is “added” in the top right corner of the image which changes the green’s shade. The bee stands out because it is centered and is the main focus, but also because it is the only primary color example surrounded by secondary colors.

Saturation also plays a big part in this image. High saturation makes a color more vibrant while a desaturated color is less vibrant. The purples and greens in this image are very saturated while the yellow of the bee is more desaturated and has a lighter tint. Tint is the addition of white to a color. The yellow is not as vibrant as a purer yellow might be. The bee is also a good example of color interaction. The juxtaposition of yellow on black makes the yellow stand out more than if it was not associated with black.

It is interesting to look back at an image and see how color interacts to make a visually interesting image. Without knowledge of color, one doesn’t have technical appreciation for color and its complexities. Studying this image gives me a greater understanding of how color works together.