Contrast is arguably one of the most important things in color theory. The contrast of an image can be changed with the smallest of touches from what angle you look at a piece of artwork to which angle a photo is taken at. Contrast is affected by the colors we see, for this example I will be using black and white as a sort of control group for contrast. We all know that black and white are opposites, they contrast each other, and you will often find that white looks better when it is surrounded by black. The same can be said for dark colors and light colors, they contrast each other, and they give an image life if used properly. However, there is still an area of contrast that we have not discussed, one could say it’s a bit of a “grey” area. I am, of course, talking about neutral colors such as grey. Mid-toned colors are complemented by both lighter and darker colors, but they do not contrast with each other. From what we know so far, colors are supposed to have both a contrasting and complementary color companion. However, neutrals often don’t have one or the other, this is what introduces us to the idea of warm and cool colors which is another important part of color theory. The subject of warm, cool and neutral color theory will be explored in a future post.