I’ve been thinking a lot recently about values of colors — how dark or light they are — and wanted to share some thoughts with you, as well as a tip or two.

I think most people have a feel for the concept that value means dark or light, but when it comes to applying the theory to specific tasks, they are stumped. This is because it’s easy to confuse the value with the hue (or color) of the, well, color. But value is an important concept to understand, because it can make the difference in anything you’re making where you want a particular element/shape/text to really pop out from the background.

Let’s say you’re making something with two colors, like a business card (or a quilt with letters on it, maybe), where you want to be able to easily distinguish the text. What would you think about these two colors?



These two colors are nice, but they will tend to blend together. Your eye will not immediately pick out one color or the other. And they behave this way because they are the same value. A business card designed with these two colors would cause a great deal of eye strain (and definitely not generate any business!).

Now look at this combination:



This combination pops. And why is that? Because the *values* of these two colors are different. A business card designed with these two colors would be much easier to read than a business card designed with the first pair of colors (though not as easy to read as a card designed in black and white, which has the maximum value difference).

(I had some trouble getting the colors to cooperate and photograph true, but the red is the same in both shots, while the second green is a lighter shade of the first.)

Okay, so we know that making things pop requires different values, but if your eye is not good at evaluating values on its own, how can you tell?

One way to look at values is by using a ruby glass. This is basically a red filter that eliminates much of the color so you are left with primarily the values of the items. Mine came in a pair with a green glass that does the same thing. This is necessary because a ruby glass will not give true value readings on colors that contain red, and a green glass will not give true value readings on colors that contain green.



Let’s look at those pairs of fabrics from earlier through our filters.

First pair of same value:


Second pair of different values:


Because we are using red and green fabrics for the example, we really have to look at both images and compare what the green looks like through the red filter to what the red looks like through the green filter. I don’t know about you, but my brain has a lot of trouble with that unless I can look at them side by side, which is kinda hard to do! (FYI – these photographs were created by placing my green and red filters in front of my camera lens!)

I have come up with a very simple way to get a global view with one shot, so to speak. Your digital camera!

Nearly every digital camera these days comes with a black and white setting that is perfect for checking values. If you are able to preview your shots on the LCD screen, you may not even need to take photos to check the values — just aim the camera at the items!

Let’s see how the fabrics above look with the camera set for black and white.

First pair of same value:


Second pair of different values:


Lovely! Now it’s really easy to tell that our first pair are the same value and that the second pair are different values. And it’s even easier with a wide range of colors!

Lovely stack of fabrics in rainbow colors.


The same stack through red and green filters. Notice how everything in the orange/red/red-purple range looks very light with the red filter (even when it isn’t), and everything in the blue-green/green range looks very light with the green filter (even when it isn’t).


Here the values in this stack are clearly shown using the black and white setting on my camera. Voila!


So, find that black and white setting on your camera and start valuing!