How the Use of Background Complementary Colors Made ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ So Visually Engaging

Martin Kaninsky of About Photography took a detailed look at how the The Queen’s Gambit utilized complementary colors to make the entire series so visually engaging. Martin points out that many of the scenes work directly off the unique color of main character’s hair.

By combining two primary colors yellow and blue for example we create a secondary color, in this case, green. This green color is then complimentary to the red color, meaning that it reaches its maximum intensity if we place it next to a red. Very simply said. Now that we know that we can take great advantage of that. …when you look at Elizabeth Harmon in the show, what is her color? …It is red and her red hair. So knowing that it would seem logical to somehow use the green in the same frame as Elizabeth, and that is exactly what they did.

via PetaPixel