Four Season Colour Analysis – how to tell if you are a Summer, Autumn, Winter or Spring Type
Some of you may have already heard of the four different seasons in regards to skin, eye and hair colour. It was a clever person who thought of this colour theory. There are many people have written about this subject mainly in the late 1970s to the present day. Check out Wikipedia for the different books on the subject and the history of colour theory.
Some of you may already have had your colours done by an expert! If you have, please let me know your colour type so I can plan the shoot!
Autumn Type
One day a friend had booked a colour session for herself. She also booked a friend in and chose me to take to the session. The consultations were free in our local mall (Northlands Mall – look out for the occasional free colour consultant). The consultant would take you to shops with clothing that suited your colour type and body shape.
I ended up buying a brown leather jacket which I still wear a lot. The tones in the jacket are autumn which match my warm skin tone, which has warm yellow undertones, and my red (dyed) hair (see photo below) and green/hazel eyes.
I also suit russet colours, maroon, browns and warm greens. Here I’m wearing two of my autumn colours, brown and green, with blue jeans which are ok because they are further away from my face than the warm tones. It all works with my skin tone and I look pretty good here.
The green of my top could be a bit warmer – more tending toward khaki. If you put me in a cool coloured white top with blue jacket – it may not work as well – I would need to add a warm colour in there somewhere with a mustard yellow scarf maybe. (Thanks Craig from Furtography for my profile shot)
Ragni is also an Autumn but with darker hair and skin tonings. Her overall skin tone and hair colour is warm and she suits the yellow jumpsuit beautifully in this picture! The yellow backdrop from the tree just sets off the photo beautifully and the khaki green of the trees is also in her colour range.
Winter Type
I haven’t had many clients who are a winter type as I think it is a bit more rare. They have a cool skin tone, dark hair and dark eyes and they can wear clear sharp colours, pure white, black, navy blue, red and shocking pink. Any lighter colours should be icy in colour rather than pastel.
As an easy example, think of Disney’s Snow White! She has fairly cool skin, dark hair and eyes and really suits her red lips. She also wears jewel colours in yellow, red and blue which are sharp and clear.
Spring Type
Hazel is a Spring type. She has light eyes and warm blonde hair. Here she suits the beautiful pale pink maternity dress and also suits the warm gold maternity dress. I put her on a the green grey backdrop because this backdrop has warm undertones.
If I had put her in silver on a blue backdrop – it would not have worked as well. After learning about all these different colour types, I’m definitely going to make a silver dress to cater for cooler skin tones. As a general rule, Hazel should wear gold jewellery and suits pale colours more than dark colours.
The green maternity dress is maybe a little dark for her, but I think we get away with it because it is the correct colour palette for her tonings.
If anyone is interested, Hazel has a website Tiki Touring Twins which follows her travels with her partner George and two cute little twins!
Summer
My friend Jacque has a totally different colour palette to me. She has cool blonde hair and light blue eyes. She is wearing blue here and my blue denim backdrop which I hand painted recently, really sets off the whole image.
Jacque mainly suits silver jewellery. She told me she wears a lot of blues and purples which is exactly what will suit her colouring. Her favourite colour is also the name of her business Royal Blue Beauty! Go Jacque!
To do a colour analysis on yourself, this website Colour Me Pretty is really helpful. I used it to guess the colours for a couple of people I have photographed recently and got it bang on.
If you are having a headshot, or a shoot with me please think about doing this quick analysis because it will really help you to choose the colours of clothes that will suit you, if you don’t know already.
In saying all this, this is just a guide. One expert states that you can wear any colour, it’s just the way you put the colours together. This is a bit of an elusive statement, but you can check out her theory here if you are interested in learning more.
If you would like a headshot or photoshoot and haven’t booked with me yet, please ring or text on 021 180 8928 or fill in my fun questionnaire and I will ring you back shortly.