Keep Contrasting Colors to a Minimum

Before shooting, look at your scene and see if there is an area containing fewer colors. Imagine you’re shooting a portrait of a high school senior and in the area behind your subject there is a red stop sign, a green car, some blue sky, orange flowers, and green grass (5.1). Distracting, right? As photographers, we need to remember to keep our visual message clear.

5.1. This is an example of what happens when you have a background with every color under the sun. Even though people appear in this photo, you hardly notice them because of the distracting shapes and colors all around.