GEK1532 History of color theory and color mixing

Thorsten Wohland Dep. Of Chemistry S8-3-6 Tel.: 6516 1248 E-mail: chmwt@nus.edu.sg

The history of color is the history of science and the interactions between different disciplines which include philosophy, physics, physiology, psychology, chemistry and biology but as well the arts like painting and poetry.

Revision:

What is color?
Is it a property of objects? Is it a property of light? Is it a property of our brain? Is it a property determined by our cultural background? Is it a property determined by our language?

Revision: Lets ask what is necessary to perceive color

Light as the medium that transfers information to us (light source) An object which interacts with the light and changes its characteristics (wavelength, intensity) and is thus perceived Eyes that act as a sensor for light (intensity and some wavelength discrimination) The brain that interprets the signal detected by the eyes and leads to the perception of the color and object
It turns out that every single aspect here has an influence on the color seen and color is not simply characterized by and one of them.

What are essential properties of colors?

Spectral colors

Saturation, hue, brightness

Complementarity

How do we perceive objects?

560 BC: Pythagoreans believe that the eye sends rays to objects to obtain information. 480 BC: Empedocles thinks that objects emit images that interact with emanations form the eye. 450 to 300 BC: Socrates, Democritus (atomists), Plato, Aristotle, Euclid all have some theory that postulate rays from the eye and/or rays from the object that causes us to see color and shape. 80 BC: Lucretius postulates that sunlight acts in the air to create the impressions we get of objects.. Up to 1200 AD: Roger Bacon still believes that it is the eye that emits rays to scan objects.

How do we perceive objects?

Vision Rays?
Scanning an object to obtain an image. That is actually a concept used in many modern microscopes. Pro: How can a mountain send out images in all directions that then can enter the small eye? Contra: Why are vision rays not active in the dark?

How many colors are needed to mix all possible colors?

Aristotle

2 colors?

What is the first and most basic regular process a human would observe in its environment?

Aristotle thus originally believed that all colors are degradations of black and white.

How many colors are needed to mix all possible colors?

However, remember the afterimages you saw last lecture: they suggest that there are at least two pairs of complementary colors: yellow-blue and red-green. Aristotles color circle

6 colors?
Nassau, Fig. 1.1

How many colors are needed to mix all possible colors?

1643-1727: Newton used a prism to decompose sunlight in its parts. He founded a color theory and made the first color circle to order colors.

7 colors?
http://physics.hallym.ac.kr

Newtons color circle

How many colors are needed to mix all possible colors?

Johann Wolfgang Goethe: He contributed to color theory (often in enmity towards Newton) and created a symmetric color circle with 6 colors (not 7 like Newtons) which were pair-wise complementary colors.

An interesting article to Goethe and Newton can be found at: http://www.aip.org/pt/vol-55/iss-7/p43.html

6 colors?

How many colors are needed to mix all possible colors?

We are capable of feeling three different color sensations. Light of different kinds excites these sensations in different proportions, and it is by the different combinations of these three primary sensations that all the varieties of visible color are produced.

James Clerk Maxwell 1831-1879 First color pictures by photographing a subject with filters of the three primary colors. -> Maxwells color triangle

3 colors?

How many colors are needed to mix all possible colors?

Green

Cyan White

Yellow

Blue

Magenta

Red

How many colors are needed to mix all possible colors?

We have three channels for distinguishing colors in our brain: 2 chromatic: RED - GREEN YELLOW BLUE Ewald Hering 1834-1918 1 achromatic: BLACK WHITE

4 colors?

Saturation, hue, brightness

Saturation Brightness

Hue

Hue

Saturation, hue, brightness

Brightness

(HSB:241)

Saturation

Hue: Blue

Saturation

Brightness

Saturation, hue, brightness

Newtons experiment
1643-1727: Newton used a prism to decompose sunlight in its parts. He founded a color theory and made the first color circle to order colors.

http://physics.hallym.ac.kr

Colors obtained by passing white light through a prism are the so-called spectral hues or colors in the pure spectrum. More colors can be produced by mixing these colors with white (ex.: red+white -> pink). All these colors are said to have the same hue but different saturation (sometimes called chroma or purity).

How are colors produced in our environment?

1) Light sources of different color can be used to illuminate objects, i.e. one uses only a selected part of the visible spectrum for illumination. Assuming Sun light as the light source. The sunlight interacts with the object and: 2) A part of the spectrum is removed 3) The sunlight is separated in its components (prism, rainbow) Start with no light, i.e. darkness 4) A part of the spectrum is added (emission, e.g. fluorescence)

400 nm

500 nm

600 nm

700 nm

Spectrum

Additive mixing

What you see

Spectrum

Subtractive mixing
Light source is needed

What you see

Spectrum

Subtractive mixing

What you see

An object that reflects all light is WHITE

An object that absorbs blue light is YELLOW

An object that absorbs blue and green light is ORANGE

An object that absorbs all light is BLACK

But what is this?

Its called Metamerism

Question for you: Is there a possibility to test whether two colors are really the same or are metamers?

So what is the minimum amount of colors we need to mix all colors?

Additive color mixing by three primary colors

Additive color mixing is based on the emission of light.

Example: Television

Partitive mixing
Close up: Far away:

In contrast to simple mixing, where colors really overlap, in partitive mixing colors do not overlap. However since they are close together our eyes are not able to resolve them and the colors add up.

Subtractive color mixing with three primary colors

Subtractive color mixing is based on the absorption of light (illumination or light source dependent). For an article on primary colors see: http://www.gain.net/PIA_GATF/PDF/GATF/info005.pdf

Lets try an experiment

Questions to ponder
Why do you see the colors only at the edges? How does the colors depend on the edge type? Can you explain why that is so?

For further details see: http://www.colorcube.com/articles/prism/prism.htm