Study the macro shot of the bee on the sunflower to prove the above. This phenomenon of offsetting opposite colors causes the leaves to pop off the page. This is what causes the powerful psychological impact on the viewer. When opposites are juxtaposed in the same image, the warm color comes forward and the cool one recedes. Think about the above example of the cottonwood leaves. Upon printing out the wheel, note that blue and yellow are opposites. What colors are adjacent to any given color on the wheel? These are known as complements. The key factors you want to absorb are twofold: What colors are 180 degrees from any given color on the wheel? These are known as the opposites. I encourage you to Google “Color Wheel” and print a copy of one to place in your camera bag. The reason for this starts with color theory. Autumn-colored aspen leaves juxtaposed against a clear blue northern sky leap forward. Subjects with bold reds, oranges and yellows, offset against vibrant blues and greens, are good candidates. Subjects with vivid or iridescent colors are the obvious building blocks upon which the image should be based. Subject choice, lighting, time of day, digital manipulation and filter choice all contribute to their impact. Many factors go into the successful creation of vividly toned images. Composition and lighting become secondary and serve as support pieces. As a matter of fact, natural bold color can dominate so strongly, it can serve as the primary subject. Color that’s striking can be rich and it doesn’t have to be overly saturated to be powerful. Overly saturated color definitely commands attention, but once the viewer studies the image, he or she realizes something isn’t natural and will question it.
Note that the word “rich” is capitalized because there’s a huge difference between RICH and OVERLY. One way to add impact to your images is with RICH saturated colors that appear to jump right off the photo.