Colour matching

3 August 2018



Do you ever look at a photograph and feel completely inspired by the colours?

And then do you walk down the paint aisles at major DIY retailers and either feel completely overwhelmed or disillusioned?

Yes - me too.

But a little while ago, I think it was on Julie Fei Fan Balzer's blog, I discovered that there are apps out there that help you analyse the colours in photographs.

So I had a little play.

First of all, I used https://palettegenerator.com/ 


This first one was generated from an acrylic painting.

That feels about right, but I was surprised by the next one, generated from a photo I took in a flower shop in Malmo.


I thought there would be more pink and green - these are the colours that I 'see' when I look at the source photograph.

So I homed in on a smaller, brighter section of the photograph and tried a different palette generator. This one is https://www.canva.com/color-palette/ 



I did this twice, using two slightly different areas of the source photograph.

Again there is 'brick red' where I only see pink but I feel more trusting of the second site. The colours 'feel' better.

But I am still not getting pink.  And to me, there is a pop of very definite pink in the photograph.

Have you ever used one of these websites and if you have, do you have a favourite?  And I would be intrigued to know if anyone has taken a colour analysis like this to the next stage.

Thanks for stopping by and do let me know if you have experience of these colour analysis sites.

4 comments

  1. Replies
    1. Well I know you love colour Sherie! Could be a great way to design a colour palette for a quilt.

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  2. I've tried three others. Some have more adjustments you can make that may bring out the colors one thinks should be on the chart but in all I have found these a little disappointing to work with. But you should give them a try:
    http://www.colorexplorer.com/
    https://www.degraeve.com/color-palette/
    http://www.cssdrive.com/imagepalette/

    It's been a very long time since I played with these and no, I never took it to fruition as in using the info in my work. But I do remember having the same frustration as you have had. I have to wonder if we see the colors in the photo differently than what gets popped out in a chart because of the way the colors will interact as they are juxtapositioned in the photo. Here's my blog post: https://idahobeautyquilts.blogspot.com/2011/05/color-palettes.html

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