When working on a composition in Photoshop, you might find your choice of a color scheme dictated in part by the colors in a photograph you plan to use. However, you should also consider other factors, such as the message you want to convey, the emotions you want to elicit, or the audience you want to attract. To use color effectively, it can be helpful to have some understanding of color psychology. Knowing how colors affect people - not only in your own culture, but also in other cultures - can help you convey a message or close a sale. For example, you might already know that wearing black makes you appear thinner, but did you know it also gives you a look of authority or power? Red can elicit intense emotions, while blue and green can produce a calming effect. In certain cultures,

green symbolizes paradise. Color is a very powerful tool. The more you know about it, the more effectively you’ll use it.

What will be an ideal response?

As someone using digital imaging to convey messages, you’ll often face the challenge of trying to ensure that your work is accessible to the largest number of people possible. It’s a good idea to keep in mind that some people are color blind, which means they don’t see certain colors the same way the majority of the population sees them. There are many kinds of color blindness. Some color-blind people can’t distinguish between red and green; others can’t distinguish between blue and yellow; others don’t see color at all (though this is extremely rare). You can create designs that accommodate the color blind in a number of ways:

* Avoid putting red and green or blue and yellow directly next to each other in a composition, if possible.
* Use textures in addition to colors to help distinguish between objects in a composition.
* Add borders to delineate separate areas in a composition or on a Web page.
* Underline text that you want to stand out, rather than relying solely on a color change.
* Vary the fonts for text that uses different colors.
* Use shapes as backgrounds for different parts of the composition.
These suggestions are helpful aids for reaching a color-blind audience, but they also present additional challenges, such as images that are too busy (because of multiple fonts and shapes) or images that aren’t aesthetically pleasing to a wider audience. By following these guidelines and using the tools in Photoshop to help you solve some of these problems, you can create compositions that reach the widest possible audience.