Intense Colors in Photographs Can Influence Emotions and Determine the Way People Perceive Them

May 28, 2010 - PRLog -- The colors in photographs do determine what people feel when they look at them. These emotions could often be based on their own life experience or cultural background. According to Smailka, a visual designer and a photographer working as a retoucher at the website http://www.sparklephotos.com, the colors and their proper combinations are a very important ingredient for creating beautiful and visually appealing photographs or collages which to be positively accepted and liked by most of the audience.

Although people have different backgrounds there are some common perceptions they all manifest when it comes to colors. The red color is always perceived as a hot, active and passionate one. The yellow is always optimistic, playful. The green is calm and safe.

People tend to be attracted by happiness and the colors they associate with positive emotions. A study among students in Australia (1996) found that bright colors provoked mostly positive emotions while dark colors were associated with negative ones. Still a study in Japan concluded that young people there prefer black color and it evokes both positive and negative emotions.

When taking photographs the author is not always able to play in real time with colors and change them the way he or she desires. Even after the shooting process too much color  manipulation could ruin the photos. Sometimes however there could be made even slight enhancements in the editing process which to lift up the feelings and the perception of the photo to a whole new level. “Our experience shows that editing and retouching photographs in a particular way could often create desired emotions and to a great extend these emotions are able to determine if the spectator like the photos and their author or not.” says Smailka. “We are always careful to chose the right colors according to what we desire to achieve. At http://www.sparklephotos.com we often prefer colorful, vital and fresh photographs as they evoke joy and happy feelings. They also tend to be accepted by a much wider audience.”