How do I customize Angular Material's input/md-input-container component?

Question

As stated in the title, how do I customize these elements? It seems they are using transparent background which is very difficult to view on most background palettes

Answer 1

I would recommend to use the palette configuration:

    app.config(function($mdThemingProvider) {

        //change default color for primary
        var indigo = $mdThemingProvider.extendPalette('indigo', {
            '500': '569fd4'
        });
        $mdThemingProvider.definePalette('indigo', indigo);

        //change default color for warn
        var indigo = $mdThemingProvider.extendPalette('red', {
            '500': 'ff5800'
        });
        $mdThemingProvider.definePalette('red', indigo);

        $mdThemingProvider.theme('default').primaryPalette('indigo').warnPalette('red');  

        //here you change placeholder/foreground color.
        $mdThemingProvider.theme('default').foregroundPalette[3] = "rgba(0,0,0,0.67)";

});

Source: How to set light foreground colors for text when using dark theme?