Here I go again with the contrast stuff. I promise that I won't post any more pictures of myself wearing scarves! (Marley are you reading this? :-)) I am doing this because I recently read these posts on Imogen Lamport"s Website and found them very helpful. In fact, her explanations are so clear, that I think I may finally understand value and contrast after struggling with it over the past few months (as many of you have repeatedly, but kindly and gently pointed out). I thought I would pass the links along for anyone who is interested. The three step method for figuring out color contrast and value contrast is particularly interesting.

I am posting my responses to her questions so I can have an electronic record. I think it's interesting. Please feel free to post your answers also.

We can learn about each others contrast levels and hopefully this will help us help each other.

http://www.insideoutstyleblog......ep-process

Question 1. Hair color contrast: I fall in the neutral category because mine is ash blond, but interestingly, my natural color fell into this category also
Hair Value contrast is light to medium, there is much variability in my hair color. (for this I took a close up photo and converted it to grey scale)
Question 2: My skin is neutral., My skin Value is on the fair side of fair/medium
Question 3: My eyes are colored. My eye value is medium (once again I used grey scale photo)

Color Contrast: According to Imogen, I have 2 neutrals and a color. This means I should use low to medium color contrast, and would look best in neutrals plus one color. I am going out on a limb here and guessing that if I wear blush, or have a flare of my rosacea, that would put me in the colored skin category, and perhaps would allow for more color with the neutrals. Just a thought? Not entirely sure on this one.

Value contrast: According to Imogen, I have two elements separated by at least half of the grey scale, my hair and skin, and my hair and eyes. This would make me medium value contrast. I hope that I am interpreting this correctly? This would mean that I would look best in light and medium, or medium and dark, but if I wear dark and light, I would need to wear a medium color also.

The final question to ask is which is more dominant when you look at pictures of yourself, value contrast, or color contrast? For me I think they are equal in importance, based on the examples she gives.

It would seem that in order to accomplish what this requires I may need some additional items in a medium color depth. I found these difficult to find in my light summer palette. I have scarves that fit the bill though. I am looking for some tops though, and maybe some dresses. I wonder if the item can be as small as a pair of earrings?

I am going to pay some attention to this as I dress over the next few weeks and see what happens?

Here are a few more links from Imogen to explain the terms.

1. Real life examples of working with value/contrast

http://www.insideoutstyleblog......trast.html
2. What is My Value Contrast
http://www.insideoutstyleblog......trast.html
3. What is Color Contrast
http://www.insideoutstyleblog......trast.html

Many thanks to Imogen for her clear explanations!

Do you pay attention to contrast level when you shop and dress?
Once again, feel free to go through the above exercise and post your results. You don't have to post all your answers like I did, but you can if you want.