Color palettes in film and photography

In a recent post from OPEN CULTURE the business of color palettes in film was discussed. Film makers have long used color to underline the emotional thrust of a movie. Different colors are loaded with distinctive psychological meanings and are powerful signifiers. Red is the color of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love. Yellow is the color of sunshine. It's associated with joy, happiness, intellect, and energy. Blue is the color of the sky and sea. It is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven. And so on...

The site Cinema Palettes, shows examples of various film color palettes, it's not difficult to see how these color choices contribute significantly to the take out from a film.

Lost in Translation (2003) dir. Sofia Coppola

The Shining (1980) dir. Stanley Kubrick

The Revenant (2015) dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu

American Beauty (1999) dir. Sam Mendes

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) dir. George Miller

In my recent photobook - THE LAMENT (Dewi Lewis UK)  I made a decision to go for an almost monochrome color palette using grays, dark blues and greens and ochre. I  punctuated these colors with strong reds. After all a lamentation is about loss and sadness and I wanted the overall look of the book to reinforce that. Below are some of the spreads from THE LAMENT, I think you can see what I'm on about.

If you are interested THE LAMENT is available from Dewi Lewis Publishing HERE or The Book Depository HERE. This hardback book has 96 pages with 83 photographs.