Before&After: How to Cool a Hot Photo

The color wheel is an artificial device that’s good but not perfect— colors in nature aren’t so evenly distributed—whose purpose is to show color relationships. Also on the wheel are values (dark-light) and temperature. This 12-page article from Before&After Magazine answers the question: “How do we cool this heat in this photograph?” The answer is found on the color wheel between ice blue and yellow, in the turquoise blues and verdant greens of springtime.

Our photo is full of colors in the orange range, and very warm. Orange’s opposite—or complement—is blue, the coldest color. Let’s start there.

© John McWade/Before&After Magazine, courtesy of Gaye Anne McWade.