Romantic portraits rely on subtlety and atmosphere rather than wild contrasts. The most effective examples either use a very restricted palette of harmonious colours, or next to no colour at all. If you want an image to be restful or gentle, don’t stir things up with contrasting colours. Many still life shots succeed because they have a restricted range of colours.

Try choosing backgrounds, subjects and props which harmonise rather than contrast with each other. Images of a single colour can be just as striking as those with strong contrasts. You can get the contrast that most photos need in order to work from tonal rather than colour variations. And if you can’t fi nd a background to match the colour of your subject, try a plain white or black. Colour versus no-colour is yet another kind of contrast!