The
difficulty with color is to go beyond the fact that it's color – to
have it be not just a colorful picture but really be a picture about
something. It's difficult. So often color gets caught up in color, and
it becomes merely decorative. Some photographers use [ it ] brilliantly
to make visual statements combining color and content; otherwise it is
empty. - Mary Ellen Mark, “Mary Ellen Mark: 25 Years” by Marianne Fulton, ISBN: 0821218387, Page: 5
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| © Antony Crossfield |
Munsell Color System
Color consists of 3 basic elements:
Saturation (or chroma) - vividness or purity of a color valued from 0 to 100
Luminance (or lightness/brightness) - lightness or darkness in a color valued from 0 to 100
Perceptual Color
We see colors in
relationship to other colors in our field of vision.
The appearance of any
one color is modified by the presence of other colors.
Two colors, side by
side, interact with one another and change our perception accordingly. The
effect of this interaction is called simultaneous contrast.
Lightness shift: By far the best example of simultaneous
contrast since value dominates our visual experience. Want to make a
color appear lighter? Make it lighter or make surrounding colors darker.
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| Lightness Shift |
Saturation shift: The next strongest visual effect. Want
to make a color appear more saturated? Make it more saturated or make
surrounding colors less saturated.
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| Saturation Shift |
Hue shift: Want to make a color appear cooler? Make it
cooler or make surrounding colors warmer.
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| Hue Shift |
Color Afterimages
Lilac Chaser (Magenta dot blinking in a circle with the complimentary green dots appearing as temporary afterimages).
