Notes On Colour:

- colour is everywhere
- ex: in clothes, pictures, etc.
- colour can make things beautiful
- it can describe emotion (red = anger, etc.)
- colour cannot exist without light
- light consists of energy waves grouped together in a spectrum
- white light is composed of many colours
Visible light spectrum: the wavelengths that our eyes can detect
- the visible light spectrum ranges from red to blue
- outside this range is invisible ! light and "-ray
Primary Colours:
- visible light spectrum is divided into # predominant colours: red, green, blue
- primary colours can be arranged into a colour wheel
primary colours form a triangle
between are secondary colours (cyan, magenta, yellow) in another triangle
2 Basic Ways of Reproducing Colour
$dditive colour system:
- light emitted directly from a source before an ob%ect reflects the light
- mixing & primary colours to produce secondary colours
- mixing # primary colours makes white
- ex: '! screens and monitors have simultaneously illuminated pixels to create colour
( light is emitted from the phosphor dots when electronically activated
( dots are very tiny, we cannot see them individually but %ust the colours produced
- devices such as cameras, scanners, etc. use the additive colour system to reproduce images
)ubtractive *olour )ystem:
- light seen after it has been reflected off an ob%ect
- an ob%ect itself has no colour: ob%ects reflect the wavelengths of white light that cause us to see colours
- subtractive colour starts with an ob%ect which reflects light and uses colorants, (pigments, dyes, etc.) to
subtract portions of white light to give off a certain colour+ this process allows us to see colour
- printing presses use colour inks that act as filters so that light can reflect off the paper base, back to the
viewer
- offset printing uses cyan, magenta, and yellow process colour inks and black
- overprinting one transparent ink with another produces subtractive secondary colours: red, green, blue
,look at the website for colour mixes
- an original colour image must be converted into small dots of *-./ (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) before
reproduction
Additie!"ubtractie Colour #heory
- & methods of colour creation from selective absorption of light
-'ertiary colour: created from # primary or secondary colours
- no use of mirrors or lenses in these theories
- vision relies on the retina with & sensors
( rod: work at low intensity light but produces blurry colours
( cone: works at high intensity light but produces sharp colour images
- perception of colour depends on stimulation of cells
- distribution of colours in spectrum could be wrong but should appear normal if the intensity is right
- primary colours -( secondary colours -( tertiary colours
- all real world ob%ects subtract some of the light to give off colour
0g. 1#2 31-4
1. 5t shows that colours with higher
fre6uency are less refracted than
colours with lower fre6uency.
7. 5t could be simply bent, totally
internally reflected, or might pass
straight through the centre.
4. 8o. 5f that were the case, all of
the colours would merge and leave
the ob%ect as white. 'he difference
in their speed and fre6uency is the
key to why a rainbow occurs.