Digital Colour

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Colors exist because of light and the lack of light. Light has many qualities and can be affected by many natural states. This can be studied by viewing a scene in different light situations.
A rainy day with light filtered through clouds has very different light qualities and properties than a bright sunshiny day. The overcast light has very subtle shadows and the colours are more saturated, darker.
A winter snow scene with brown of tree, white of snow and blue of sky and shadow, will leave the viewer cold after the warmth of the same scene in fall, with trees brilliantly colored in warm hues of golden red.
You'd have to get up pretty early in the morning to know it, but even the quality of light between a sunrise and a sunset are phenomenally different. The sunrise coloration has a cold quality coming out of the dark of night when compared with the sunset's warmth. Thus you can see how light and and lack of light or dark can affect colors. The color white is the full actualization of all colors of  light mixed in equal proportions. 
Digital Color Theory

White is the purest of light and is therefore not a color. Black on the other hand is the total absence of light and it also is not a color. Photography bases its existence on light. Whether it is digital or film based, the colors one sees in the image are based solely on the existence of light and how it affects the primary color bands: magenta, cyan and yellow. The three primary light bands, magenta, yellow and cyan behave in both an additive and subtractive manner. They actually act as filters for light. When two of these colors are filtered together they will create a new colour. If the third primary light band is added to the new color it will act as a filter, darkening the colour.  Note that the chart below illustrates the filtration concept of digital colour.


Digital Light Filtration.



The combination of yellow and magenta, in equal parts, gives us red. Adding cyan filters the yellow and red and actually darkens these shades. The combination of magenta and cyan, in equal parts, gives us blue. The colour can be darkened by adding a yellow filter. The combination of cyan and yellow, in equal parts, gives us green. Adding a magenta filter will give us a darker shade of green. 

The combination of magenta, yellow and cyan in equal parts gives us shades of grey. If we apply no filtration to light we percieve the colour white. 






Color Harmony

A journey into color is one of the most amazing sensory adventures that a person can ever take. To give us an appreciation of the effect that color has on us, is one of the true undertakings of artists everywhere. Psychologists also play the color game as demonstrated by many studies of the effects of color on people from all walks of life and situations.

For instance one study done found that the color pink was the best color to use in prisons due to its nurturing and stabilizing effect on prisoners. Authorities found that the inmates were less prone to violence, when the common and public areas of prisons were painted in pink.

If we think about individual colors, what images do they invoke? Yellow, the color of sunshine makes us think of cheerfulness, a sunny disposition, positive and bright and very wide awake. Yellow screams, "Look at me."

Red the color of blood which is the essence of human life,  screams, "STOP and look at me". It is a dominant and commanding colour which is linked to man's most primordial senses. It is the color of raw meat and triggers the appetite. It is the color of heat and is a very sexually charged colour.

Blue the colour of water and sky, produces a peaceful, tranquil effect. It is a cool colour as seen in snow shade colours and is a deep colour as seen in the electric cobalt blue of twilight.

Green is the colour of health and vitality. It summons visions of the countryside and forests. It exudes freedom and says "Go ahead." In the United States, all paper currency is green, so in that country, green represents prosperity.

Brown in it's respective shades and tones, is a body colour, the colour of skin. It is a comfort color, earthy, and if it is chocolate brown it is also delicious.

The colour purple or violet through antiquity was difficult and expensive to produce and so became the symbolic color of wealth and nobility. Colors on the blue side of violet are very electric, passionate. On the red side of violet we find grape and berry colors, triggering the appetite for good wine and a good meal. The light purple shades such as lavender have a tendency to be perceived as a child's colour.