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Color Theory: Additive and Subtractive Color ModelsAdditive and subtractive color models are based on light. Light absorbed and light reflected. The manner in which the two are employed depends upon the medium, but the basics of the models are still the same. By combining colors, one changes the amount of light absorbed or reflected and therefore how much that color will then approach either white or black. White light is made up of all the colors of the spectrum. These colors can be broken down into three main colors; red, green and blue. Every other color can be made from these three colors. Look closely at a computer monitor or a television screen and you will see these three colors represented in each picture element, or pixel. The brain combines these colors optically to form all of the colors we see. Combine equal amounts of red, green and blue light and the resulting color will be white. This is essentially additive color. Additive color theory deals with the properties of light, and describes the situation where, as you add colors to the projected light, the resulting color will become closer to white. Eventually, when all the colors of the spectrum are added to the projection, the resulting color is white. This was proven by Isaac Newton when he projected white light into a prism, breaking the light up into its constituent colors, and then passing that spectrum through a lens and back through another prism to recombine the spectrum, resulting in a white beam of light once again. Subtractive color theory deals with reflected light. When color is applied to a white board, the more colors you add, the more the resulting color approaches black. With color such as paint or inks, the effect is somewhat different. The color spectrum of paint or ink can be broken down into three main colors as well, but these three are red, yellow and blue. Combine equal amounts of these, in theory, and you will get black. The reality is often that you will get a muddy brown, but this has to do mostly with the properties of the paint or ink at hand rather than the reality of reflected light. This spectrum difference is still controlled through light and must obey the light spectrum rules as well. The colors we see when paint is applied to a surface are the result of reflected light. We see red paint because red is the color that is reflected and the paint absorbs the red and green colors of the white light. As colors are added to the surface and blended with the original color, each successive color reflects back until in the end, all the colors are reflected and the result is black. Start your graphic design career today by requesting information from one of our highly respected graphic design schools! Find a school near you >> Copyright © 2008 Graphic Design Schools All rights reserved. |
