Additive color

Additive Color

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Additive color

An additive color model involves light

Light

Light, or visible light, is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength that is Visible spectrum to the human eye , or up to 380?750 nm. In the broader field of physics, light is sometimes used to refer to electromagnetic radiation of all wavelengths, whether visible or not....
emitted directly from a source or illuminant of some sort. The additive reproduction process usually uses red

Red

Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 625?740 Nanometer....
, green

Green

Green is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520?570-Nanometre....
and blue

Blue

Blue is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 440?490 Nanometre....
light to produce the other colors. See also RGB color model

RGB color model

The RGB color model is an additive color in which red, green, and blue light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors....
. Combining one of these additive primary color

Primary color

Primary colors are sets of colors that can be combined to make a useful range of colors. For human applications, three are often used; for additive combination of colors, as in overlapping projected lights or in cathode ray tube displays, the primary colors normally used are red, green, and blue....
s with another in equal amounts produces the additive secondary color

Secondary color

A secondary color is a color made by mixing two primary colors in a given color space. Examples include the following:...
s cyan

Cyan

Cyan may be used as the name of any of a number of a range of colors in the blue/green part of the spectrum. In reference to the visible spectrum cyan is used to refer to the color obtained by mixing equal amounts of green and blue light or the removal of red from white light....
, magenta

Magenta

Magenta is a purplish pink color evoked by lights with less power in yellowish-green wavelengths than in blue and red wavelengths . In light experiments, magenta can be produced by removing the lime-green wavelengths from white light....
, and yellow

Yellow

Yellow is the color evoked by light that stimulates both the L and M cone cells of the retina about equally, but does not significantly stimulate the S cone cells; that is, light with much red and green but not very much blue....
.

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Encyclopedia

An additive color model involves light

Light

Red

Green

Green is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520?570-Nanometre....
and blue

Blue

RGB color model

Primary color

Secondary color

A secondary color is a color made by mixing two primary colors in a given color space. Examples include the following:...
s cyan

Cyan

Magenta

Yellow

White

White is a color, the Color vision#Physiology of color perception which is evoked by light that stimulates all three types of color sensitive cone cells in the human eye in near equal amount and with high brightness compared to the surroundings....
. Varying the luminosity

Luminosity

Luminosity has different meanings in several different fields of science....
of each light (color) eventually reveals the full gamut

Gamut

In color reproduction, including computer graphics and photography, the gamut, or color gamut , is a certain complete subset of colors....
of those three lights (colors). The most common use of additive light is the projected light used in theatrical lighting (plays, concerts, circus shows, night clubs, etc.). Computer monitors and televisions use a system called optical mixing and cannot be considered additive light because the colors do not overlap. The red green and blue pixels are side-by-side. When a green color appears, only the green pixels light up. When a cyan color appears, both green and blue pixels light up. When white appears all the pixels light up. Because the pixels are so small and close together our eyes blend them together, having a similar effect as additive light.

Results obtained when mixing additive colors are often counterintuitive for people accustomed to the more everyday subtractive color

Subtractive color

A subtractive color model explains the mixing of paints, dyes, inks, and natural colorants to create a range of colors, where each such color is caused by the mixture absorbing some wavelengths of light and reflecting others....
system of pigments, dyes, inks and other substances which present color to the eye by reflection rather than emission

Emission (electromagnetic radiation)

In physics, emission is the process by which the energy of a photon is released by another entity, for example, by an atom whose electrons make a transition between two electronic energy levels....
. For example, in subtractive color systems green is a combination of yellow and blue, in additive color, red + green = yellow and no simple combination will yield green. It should be noted that additive color is a result of the way the eye

Eye

Eyes are Organ that detect light, and send signals along the optic nerve to the visual system and other areas of the brain. Complex optical systems with resolving power have come in ten fundamentally different forms, and 96% of animal species possess a complex optical system....
detects color, and is not a property of light. There is a vast difference between yellow light, with a wavelength of approximately 580 nm, and a mixture of red and green light. However, both stimulate our eyes in a similar manner, so we do not detect that difference. (see eye (cytology)

Eye

Color vision

Color vision is the capacity of an organism or machine to distinguish objects based on the wavelengths of the light they reflect or emit. The nervous system derives color by comparing the responses to light from the several types of Cone cell in the eye....
.)

James Clerk Maxwell

James Clerk Maxwell was a Scotland Mathematical physics. His most significant achievement was the development of the classical electromagnetic theory, synthesizing all previous unrelated observations, experiments and equations of electricity, magnetism and even optics into a consistent theory....
is credited as being the father of additive color. He had the photographer Thomas Sutton photograph a tartan ribbon three times, first with a red, then green, then blue color filter over the lens. The three images were developed and then projected onto a screen with three different projectors, each equipped with the corresponding red, green, or blue color filter used to take its image. When brought into register, the three images formed a full color image, thus demonstrating the principles of additive color.

External links

- Photos and stories from the James Clerk Maxwell Foundation.