Applying Colour Theory to Visual Design
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Color Theory is the art of mixing colors to
achieve desired effects.
The way colors are combined can be used to
create different feelings and responses.
A common way to explain the relationships of
the different colors is to display them in a
color wheel.
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A color wheel is really just the spectrum
twisted around so that the violet and red
ends are joined
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The color wheel is particularly useful for
showing how the colors relate to each other
and how you can create new colors by mixing
two or more colors.
The color wheel really consists of a
continual gradient of the colors in
the spectrum, but to make things a
little easier we usually divide the
wheel into twelve distinct colors.
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For our purposes, there are three colors
which are referred to as the primary colors.
All other colors can be created by mixing
these three colors.
The primary colors are Red, Green and Blue.
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If you look very closely at your computer
screen or TV (any color source that emits the
light itself) you will see that it is built up of
tiny red, green and blue dots.
This color system is commonly referred to as
the Additive Color System.
In the additive system, you get
white when the three primary
colours are present at 100%, as
seen in the illustration.
YELLOW
RED
GREEN
CYAN
MAGENTA
BLUE
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The Additive Colour System is based on the
colours of EMITTED LIGHT.
The additive colour wheel is derived from the
visible effects of mixing different
wavelengths of light in varying proportions.
Theoretically, approximately
16.7 million colours can be
created by mixing the 3 primaries
in varying degrees.
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The Additive Colour System is also called the
RGB Colour System, after the 3 primary
colours used (Red, Blue and Green).
By increasing or decreasing the
amount of each primary, the
colour we see will shift toward or
away from the primary being
modified.
http://www.huevaluechroma.com/042.php
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Try this…G:\Website\Colour\colour.html
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Digital cameras detect light in the same way
our eyes do
Understanding additive colour is the key to
understanding how to control the quality of
your digital photographs
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Your digital camera can only detect red, blue
and green wavelengths of light. It uses a
microprocessor to combine the varying
intensities of the light that it “sees” to create
an image.
Unfortunately, the quality of light changes
with time of day and the type of lighting
being used.
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Using the additive system, we can consider
‘White’ to be equal intensities of red, blue
and green light.
Unfortunately, few light
sources provide an equal
balance of red, blue and green
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Objects that appear
white in a bright,
noonday sun will
appear quite orange
or yellow late in the
afternoon.
This has to do with
the balance of red
and blue in sunlight
at these times
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Photographers can overcome this by
adjusting their camera’s light
sensitivity to compensate for an
unequal color balance.
This process is called “White
Balancing” and is really just telling the
camera what combinations of red,
blue and green light appear white
under certain lighting
If the ambient light has a yellow
tint, White Balancing will increase
the camera’s sensitivity to blue to
compensate.
YELLOW
RED
If the ambient light has a green
tint, White Balancing will increase
the camera’s sensitivity to magenta
to compensate.
GREEN
CYAN
MAGENTA
BLUE
White balancing adjusts the camera’s colour response to the opposite side of the colour
wheel from the predominant ambient colour , compensating for uneven colour balance.
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If your camera has manual white balancing, just select the
option in the camera menu and show the camera a white
card in the same light you are using for your photos, then set
the White Balance.