I am no stranger to colour in both my style and photography, and I truly believe that being surrounded by colour can change the way you think and feel.
I’ve always considered myself to be a somewhat tech geek and have tried many different cameras in my time, but no one has been able to nail colour vibrancy like Sony has. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that I’ve partnered up with them again to share with you the capabilities of the Sony RX100V compact camera – I can safely say it’s the best travel camera I’ve used in a while. It’s a serious pocket rocket with the tech to accompany it and is the perfect size for all of your travels. I’ll be using the Sony RX100V during my travels this year, so stay tuned to see why it’s so important to capture special memories on a compact camera plus tips and tricks on how to get the best out of the camera.
To kick off the series, I thought I’d share with you a city that has recently stolen my heart and become a second home – Hong Kong. The concrete jungle that comes to life at dusk in a neon daze has so much to offer and it didn’t take me long to find colour in a city of towering skyscrapers. I’ll be sharing with you in this post how to make your colours come alive in your photos using the Sony RX100V and boosting the impact of your images post shoot.
There are of course some basic factors to take into account when shooting. I prefer to always shoot in manual for flexibility, but I should probably caveat beforehand that I am by no means an expert photographer (and you don’t have to be with this camera to achieve amazing photos!). Here are some tips I’ve discovered in the past two years from experimenting and learning on the go. Consider these things when taking your image.
How to Make Colours Pop in Your Photos
Colour Profile
There are various colour profiles that have been built into the camera (how convenient) and using the ‘Vivid Setting’ is incredibly useful when you want to take colourful images with as little editing as possible. When your setting has so much vibrancy then you may choose to keep your colour setting to something more neutral to give you the option to increase the saturation later.
Dominant vs. Contrasting Colours
To make your photos really pop, think about placing dominant colours against a contrasting one. This can include selecting a subject that contrasts against a dominant colour hue or just picking one bold colour against a dull and murkier backdrop. Pictures are most impactful when you know how to contrast colours in both composition (try pairing colours from the opposite end of the colour wheel) and post editing (play around with contrast and levels).
RAW vs JPEG
Shooting in JPEG format is the most commonly known and user friendly, but RAW allows you to manipulate the photo more in the post editing process. I generally have a rule of thumb where if what you’re seeing on your camera screen matches 1 to 1 of what you’re trying to capture then you could get away with just a JPEG file (i.e if you’re shooting bright colours on a sunny day). Conversely, if you’re shooting on a dull and cloudy day (as I was for 95% of my Hong Kong trip) then you will probably need to do a bit of tweaking – RAW images will let you do this best. An awesome feature of this camera is that you can shoot in both if you can’t decide which you prefer. You never know what the weather is going to be like when you’re set out for the day, so being able to shoot in both RAW and JPEG formats made such a different to my photos as I could edit the ones I needed to easily.
White Balance
This is something you need to focus on if you’re shooting purely in JPEG as white balance is the only thing you can’t really fix during the editing process when it’s in this format. The settings on the Sony RX100V are generally self-explanatory and if you set this to auto (guilty on occasions) the camera will measure the colour temperature of the light and neutralise this with the white balance. Another nifty feature, especially when you’re on-the-go and need to snap quickly without worrying about being in manual mode.
Why do I love colourful images so much? To me, colours can communicate things that we often find difficult to articulate in words including emotions. Studies show that people will always respond emotionally to colour and even by wearing a bit of colour in an otherwise monochrome office can brighten up the moods of those around you. Greens and blues have a calming and peaceful presence; bright colours create a cheerful and energetic atmosphere, whilst dark muted colours suggest a more somber undertone. In fact, pictures with a strong blue presence generally tend to perform better on my social channels (yes I have sat down and taken the time to analyze this!).
Once you take these factors into account, you’ll find it incredibly easy to find the colour around you and capture them in a way that does them justice! Check out the images I ended up taking with the Sony RX100V after playing around with the above features. It’s amazing what you can create when you channel your inner geek and get to know your camera. Happy snapping and feel free to drop any questions below for me!
This post has been created in collaboration with Sony.
