Red Maple, White Birch The color red is very important in photography, as well as brake lights, stops signs, exits lamps and more since it has the ability to get our attention like no other color. The human eye can distinguish up to 2.3 million shades of colors making our color vision superior to many mammals that can get by with far less. For a dog, the world is virtually devoid of color, the same for bulls. Despite those colorful red capes we see used in bullfights, bulls are colorblind and are drawn to the matador's cape by movement, not its affinity for red. Only a few species, particularly primates, can see a full range of yellows, blues, greens and most significantly, reds. But, it wasn’t always like this. Our evolution has its roots going back to shortly after the extinction of the dinosaurs. Early primates moved to the trees for safety and sustenance and the standard range of colors our ancestors saw only included blues and greens, but something happened where natural selection favored improved color vision, particularly reds. Self Portrait w/Fisheye Lens on top of Cadillac Mt Only a few species, particularly primates, can see a full range of yellows, blues, greens and most significantly reds. But, it wasn’t always like this. Our evolution has its roots going back to shortly after the extinction of the dinosaurs. Early primates moved to the trees for safety and sustenance and the standard range of colors our ancestors saw only included blues and greens, but something happened where natural selection favored improved color vision, particularly reds. It is now believed the reason why our hypersensitivity to reds goes back to an early diet of leaves. Older, less nutritious leaves are green. While the younger, more nutritious leaves are red. Eating red leaves is therefore more efficient since it saves time and energy. Therefore, over time natural selection favored primates that had an slight affinity for the color red which has evolved to the point where red is beacon that grabs our attention. This makes sense since the less time and energy that is spent searching for food, the more time there is for play and social activities. Dunnfield Creek, Delaware Water Gap So what does this mean for photographers? Simply this, a little red can go a very long way at grabbing the eyes attention. Admit it, your eye kept wandering to the red in the three images on this page while you were reading this, right? The moral of the story is this, since red does what it does, make sure you use are strategically placing it in the composition. Use it on 1/3 lines when composing or to enhance your subject. Red itself can be the subject as in a simple red leaf composition. Alternatively, always be aware when this attention grabber becomes a distraction and remove or recompose. Never forget, evolution has hard wired us to be attracted to red. So where did I learn this? The EYES program from the Evolve series on the Discovery Channel – watch it here.