Some practical ideas and tips on shooting better color photos:
1. Juicy colors
Shoot colors which are nice and juicy to you — imagine the juice coming out of a ripe tangerine, or any colors which excite and interest you!
2. Gritty textures
Photograph gritty colorful textures. As a tip, use a flash to better saturate and bring out the textures of whatever you photograph!
3. Red, blue, yellow
Keep your colors simple. Try to experiment with this simple color palette: Red, Blue, and Yellow.
4. Photograph colorful food
Experiment with color photography, by keeping it simple with colors! Like this breakfast I ate in Japan (“American styled”): Yellow egg yolks, pink bacon (more like ham), red ketchup, and a blue plate.
5. Red and green
Red and green is one of the best color combinations (think Christmas, Gucci, Heineken beer).
As an assignment, make photos with only Red and Green colors.
6. Shoot during sunset
When the sun sets, the golden light will make your colors look so much better in your photos.
Try shooting more photos during sunrise and sunset (golden hour), to have more beautiful saturated color and light in your photos!
7. Keep it simple.
Experiment just including only one color in each photo. Like only yellow.
Or only red:
8. Study nature
What colors do you see in nature? Imitate that!
Some more of my favorite color photos, shot in JPEG with RICOH GR II: