As the seasons change, creating relevant and engaging visual content for your clients and audience is a necessity. By utilising appropriate colours, iconography and styles, any composition can exude Summer to the audience. Let the change of a warm season breeze into your photography with the following techniques.

Colour

Using on-trend colours for the warmer weather will immediately emanate the season you’re styling for. The colours of Spring/Summer 2020 as forecasted by the Pantone Colour Institute, are filled with rich blues, purples and greens, vibrant reds, oranges and yellows, and sweet pinks and beige hues. Incorporating bright, warm colours into your photos, whilst straying away from excessive use of Wintery colour palettes, will boost your images into Summer.

Iconography

When done tastefully, the common stereotypes of Summer; flamingos, palm trees, beaches, sunglasses and shady hats, can be ideal for photos. These are so deeply ingrained in ‘Summer’ that only a whisper of these icons is needed to suggest the season. Placing summery objects into your composition, including appropriate accessories, will liven up your photo and emanate ‘cool, breezy and relaxed’.

Seasonal Products

As obvious as it may be, using seasonally appropriate products cannot be overlooked. You will struggle to embody a Summer’s day in an image with woollen scarves and skis as featured items. Don’t stray too far from your sandals, flowy dresses, swimsuits and light linens. Use these items to create a Summer’s day story and a sense of wonder and anticipation of the season.

Flowing shapes

Swapping winter’s crisp, stark and contained shapes for flowing and soft is an effective method to establish summery atmospheres. Consider bringing fluid and breezy design into photos for a laid-back and welcoming mood. Try experimenting with elegantly draped fabrics, gentle or rounded shapes and light materials. This technique gives compositions a vivid kinetic energy that livens and boldens, and tells the audience that Summer has arrived and it’s time to play.

Light compositions

Minimising the elements in your composition creates a lighter image.  Large areas of negative space and fewer elements filling the composition opens up every image. Winter is generally associated with cosy, snug and enclosed, so suggesting Summer can be as simple as counteracting this tone, with visually bright and accommodating space. Considered and refined compositions can do wonders for creating a spacious atmosphere and lightening any image.

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