I pay little attention to viral photography trends on Instagram, but I've spotted one might actually help you become a better photographer as well as photo editor: color hunting.
Color hunting is the name of the craze, and it’s a pretty simple one to understand: you go out looking for a specific color to make the focal point of your images.
People from all around the world are doing it and, what I like about this trend is that, unlike most Instagram photography trends, this one focuses on composition as well as editing.
I recently wrote a piece on how, for many people, composition is no longer king, so seeing a trend bring it back into focus, so to speak, is great.
So the gist of color hunting is to pick a single color and build your compositions around it. Subjects can be anything, from a passer-by wearing a bright jacket that’s exactly the color you’re hunting or a street sign with stripes of your desired hue.
But more than this, I think the key to color hunting, and what makes it a good trend to jump on, as far as trends go, is to focus on how the particular color enhances an already strong composition.
Take a vibrant yellow sunflower on a hot, sunny day, for example. The color works well here because it plays into the summer narrative. Alternatively, a dark blue car parked on a cold street corner would work just as well on a winter’s day.
Of course, you can get as creative with color hunting as you like. But, just like a strong edit doesn’t fix a poor photo, a stand-out color doesn’t either. So, seeing the color as more than just an eye-grabbing feature – as a part of the story of the image as a whole – makes for a better image all around.
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