Understanding Color

Color is easy to see but very hard to define. It’s everywhere: the blue of the sky, the red of the strawberry, the green of the plains, and almost everything else. Without color, the world will be rather drab. However, it can be a bit difficult to understand how colors work.

Talking about Color

When people talk about color, they are referring to a spectrum of visible light that can be detected by the eyes. This spectrum is composed of wavelengths of light, which is made up of energy waves that are grouped together. There are literally thousands and thousands of colors. In fact, there are so many colors that people can’t even detect all of them with the naked eye.

Hue

Hue is one of the three main properties of color. When people use the word “hue” in conjunction with colors like blue or red, they’re describing the color itself. For instance, when someone says “light blue” “pale green” or “brick red,” they’re referring to a specific color hue. As there are literally hundreds of shades of every color, hue is used to accurately identify what shade it is specifically.

Saturation

Saturation refers to the intensity of a specific color. The higher the saturation, the more vivid is the color. In fact, a picture can be so saturated that it physically hurts the eyes when people look at it. Many computer software programs today can edit the saturation of a photo to make it look better. For instance, a picture of a wave is often edited so that the blues and greens are more intense. When the colors are highlighted and magnified, the picture appears more “perfect.”

Brightness

Brightness is quite easy to understand. It refers to the level of light that’s being reflected or radiated off of something. The brighter the picture, the easier it is to see. Conversely, the darker the picture, the harder it is to see.

Combining All Three

Combining all three of these properties makes a color. The hue, saturation, and brightness combine to project certain wavelengths that your eyes recognize as colors such as light blue, dark green, candy apple red. When one of these properties is even changed a little bit, a new color is created.

Filters and Dyes

When people want to change colors to fit their needs, they can do it with filters and dyes. Color filters block the passage of certain light wavelengths to change the color. For instance, a primary red filter allows only red-associated light waves to pass and blocks others. These filters also usually contain dyes, which are light-reflecting elements. These dyes help to change a color’s properties as well.

Glowing Light

When it comes to glowing light and color, dyes also play a huge role. There are some dyes that are capable of taking light, absorbing it, and changing it into a longer wavelength. This wavelength is longer than the one that was originally absorbed and it is known as a “fluorescent light.”

Sources of Light

Light comes from a multitude of sources. The most obvious is the sun, which is the biggest source of light in this galaxy. The sun gives off white light. Artificial light comes from light bulbs and the light they produce is often more red or yellow. Meanwhile, fluorescent lamps give off light that is bluer. This is important to note because a source of light can actually change the color of certain objects.

Reflection

Not many people realize that reflections are created because of light waves as well. If a surface is flat and smooth, it is able to actually reflect light at the exact same angle that the light came in on. This means that it’s reflecting back exactly the same thing that was reflected onto it.

The Eye's Interpretation of Color

People can see colors because their eyes are able to see a small part of the visible light spectrum. On one end of the spectrum, they can see short wavelengths of light that they identify as blue. On the other side, there are the longest wavelengths they associate with the color red. In between, there are a multitude of other colors that their eyes can pick out.

Inside the Eye

The eye is a remarkable thing capable of perceiving multiple things at once. It is made up of the pupil, which is the place where light enters your eye. It shrinks and grows to absorb or deflect light. The light goes into the pupil and hits the retina. This causes a chemical reaction because it causes the optic nerves to carry information into the brain. Then, the brain transforms this information to identify colors.

How We See

When the eye is perceiving color, it happens like this. When light goes into the eyeball, it splashes on the rods and cones within the eye that are designed to perceive color. The light causes a chemical reaction – via the optic nerve – in the brain so we know exactly which colors we are looking at.

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