UI Colors in image-based design

I'm working on an app who's UI is mainly driven by images. The only non-image UI element is the navigation bar at the top and I'm struggling to find a good color palette for this. As you can see in the image below I've currently settled on a light salmon color for the navbar background, with a contrasting dark blue for the buttons.

It still feels a bit bland to me. Since the navbar background is going to be the main color users will recognize the app by, it want it to be memorable, but of course it shouldn't distract from the content. Also the contrast between the active and inactive buttons is a bit vague, as is the contrast between the inactive buttons and the navbar background. I've tried a light grey color for the inactive buttons, but that clashes with both the salmon color and the dark blue of the active button.

In general I feel the color palette could use a revision, but I can't seem to find a good base color for the navbar background. Does anyone have any suggestions for this? Or advice on how to best approach this?

Thanks