What Wes Anderson Taught Me About Colour; And Why It Matters for Your Photography Session

I was at university studying film aesthetics when I first properly got into Wes Anderson. I was also at that point where I was finally starting to feel confident in my editing; finding my style, figuring out what I actually wanted my photos to look like. I didn't know it at the time but I had been trying to do exactly what he does, without having the language for it. I started trying to replicate his colour grading, adjusted the palette depending on the shoot, and never really stopped.

The Rule Behind It

Wes Anderson works with something called the 60-30-10 rule. Sixty percent of a scene is one dominant colour that sets the overall mood. Thirty percent is a supporting colour that adds depth without competing. Ten percent is a bold accent, placed exactly where he wants your eye to go.

It sounds simple. The results are anything but.

In The Grand Budapest Hotel it's sixty percent cotton candy pink, thirty percent deep red, ten percent sky blue. In Moonrise Kingdom, warm yellows and earthy greens carry the frame, with precise little hits of red doing the emotional heavy lifting. His scenes are packed with detail but because the colour is so disciplined, you never feel overwhelmed. Your eye always knows where to go. The films feel like living paintings. That's not a coincidence, it's the rule working exactly as it should.

This is also where film form comes in. Film form is the idea that the patterns within a film, including colour, create meaning in the audience's mind. Hence, the important distinction is that it's not just about what the characters feel, it's about how you feel watching it. The colour is working on you before you've registered it consciously. Anderson understands this completely, which is why his films feel so emotionally loaded even when the dialogue is deadpan and the pacing is slow. The form is doing the work.

Moonrise Kingdom is my favourite of his films aesthetically. I think you can see why.

Moonrise kingdom:

My photos:

What This Has to Do With My Photography

Most of my photos have a similar colour feel to them: warm, slightly retro, a bit dreamlike. That didn't happen by accident.

I shoot real places, real people; nothing staged beyond what's already in front of me. But I am always reading the palette; the light, the shadows, the textures around us, and thinking about what they're doing emotionally before I've even lifted the camera.

Colours carry meaning in a way that most people feel but rarely think about consciously. Alongside communications, I also studies psychology in university and the two ended up feeding each other in ways I didn't expect; in fact, it's where film aesthetics and human psychology meet. It's a well researched field and the patterns are consistent across decades of studies. Warm tones: yellows, golds, soft ambers - trigger higher arousal emotions: excitement, energy, nostalgia, closeness. Cool tones: washed out blues, faded pastels - do the opposite, creating calm, stillness, and quiet. Muted, desaturated tones tend to feel timeless; nothing about them fights the subject or dates the image, which is part of why that slightly faded retro quality produces photos that still feel right in ten years.

And then there's red. Even a small touch of it commands the frame. It's the ten percent. But it's the thing your eye finds first, every time, without being told to.

The 60-30-10 rule applies to my shoots in exactly the same way it applies to his films. Malta makes this easier than most places: honey-coloured limestone walls as a natural sixty percent, a faded blue door as the thirty, and whatever you're wearing as that ten percent accent. The architecture makes it simpler.

This Is Exactly Why I Ask to See Your Outfit First

Colour is not just decoration - it is mood. It is the difference between a photo that feels joyful and one that feels flat, between one that feels timeless and one that just feels like a nice day out.

The single biggest variable I cannot control on the day of your shoot is what you're wearing.

A bright neon top in front of a pastel blue wall doesn't just clash, it fights the whole frame. It pulls focus away from your face, your expression, the moment. Someone in dusty rose or soft cream against a warm golden Maltese wall? The colours are working with me before I've even pressed the shutter.

This is why I always ask to see outfits before a session. Not to dress you in something that isn't you, but to make sure what you're wearing is part of the palette, not against it. And because I've spent years studying colour theory, aesthetics, and psychology, I can also tell you what actually works for you specifically, not just for the location. Colour undertones matter more than most people realise. Everyone has either a warm, cool, or neutral undertone to their skin, and the colours you wear either complement that or work against it. Wearing a colour that clashes with your undertone can make you look washed out or tired in photos in a way that has nothing to do with the light or the editing. On the other hand, the right colour will make your skin glow, your eyes stand out, and your whole presence in the frame stronger. Certain colours will make eye colour pop in a way that no amount of editing can replicate after the fact. This is something I look at with every client before every shoot, and it makes a real difference to the final images.

Think of it the way Anderson thinks about every element in his frame. Everything is a choice. Yours included.

If you're not sure where to start, I'll always help. Sometimes the right colour is the one already hanging in your wardrobe that you keep walking past.

"When you're writing a story, it often feels less like you're doing architecture and more like you're doing excavation. Like it's something that already exists and we're just unearthing it, and you know it's right because it just is." - Wes Anderson

Colour by Shoot Type: A Practical Guide

These aren't rules, they're starting points. Every person is different and I always adapt. But this gives you a sense of how I think about colour depending on the session.

Maternity shoots Soft and clean. Whites, creams, blush tones, soft nudes. Flowing fabrics in neutral tones against natural light almost always work. Avoid strong patterns or heavy colour that competes with the subject.

Portrait shoots in Valletta or Birgu These locations can handle contrast and bold colour. Deep reds, burnt oranges, jewel tones, greens, blues… all sit beautifully against warm limestone. Soft pastels can get lost against the texture of the walls here, so this is the place to be bolder.

Couples photography in nature: cliffs, countryside, coastal Softer palettes work best. Dusty pinks, sage greens, muted earth tones. And when in doubt, white is always a safe option. The landscape is already doing a lot of the visual work and the outfits should complement rather than fight it. For golden hour shoots specifically, warm tones almost always win.

Birthday and celebration shoots This is where you can be more expressive. A vibrant red in Valletta stops the frame completely. In a more natural or garden setting, something like a bold pastel, strong lilac, coral; adds a celebratory energy without feeling out of place.

Wedding and pre-wedding photography in Malta Warm and earthy tones are consistently the most flattering for golden hour sessions. For something more editorial in Mdina, Valletta or Birgu, there's room for more contrast. The most striking pre-wedding portraits I've shot have had one person in white or cream and the other in a complementary warm tone; dusty rose, sage, rather than both in matching neutrals.

Colour is Everything

What Wes Anderson gave me wasn't a technique. It was a way of seeing. The understanding that colour communicates before language does; that a palette can carry grief or joy or wonder without a single word.

When you book a portrait session, a couples shoot, or a pre-wedding session in Malta with me, we're not just finding nice locations and good light. We're building a palette together. And that palette is what will make your photos feel like yours; specific, emotional, and genuinely worth keeping on a wall.

This is the first instalment of Inspired By; a series where I break down the things that shape how I see the world and how I shoot it. Follow along on Instagram.

📩 info@photographoebe.com | 🌐 www.photographoebe.com

Based in Malta. Shooting everything worth remembering.