T H E color R Y
additive subtractive light mixtures color harmonies photography
abstraction is real probably more real “ than nature itself
joseph albers
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joseph albers
german-born american artist and educator who has worked in various countries such as europe and the united states, who formed the basis of modern art education programs of the twentieth century. student of famous swiss expressionist painter and designer, johannes itten. studied in a progressive art school in germany, bauhaus, where he and his educator, itten, would follow in with a more “in-depth� study of color. this study would then curate the theory we use today of fundamental colors.
color relativity the human eye contains rods and cones, which process different wavelengths of light in different ways. humans perceive an object’s color by the wavelengths of light that it reflects. in the absence of light, we cannot discern any color. the properties of light in any situation have great influence over the way objects appear.
referring to a color relative color, is how the color is as its seen in according too the perception of the eye. absolute color, is how the color is picked in the area of the area. local color, is the actual color of an object.
color theory color is always in a constant change. the “color theory” was built around the speculation of “pure” colors. albers believed that color were always seen in relation to the other various colors surrounding the original. it is almost impossible to see a color by itself, without any sort of interaction.
additive colors a method to create color by mixing a number of different light colors, with shades of red, green and blue. these colors known to be the common primary colors used in an additive system.
subtractive colors a method used to create a mixing of set “colors� to create a wider shade range. each result of partially or completely subtracting the wavelengths of light. color that a surface displays depends on which parts of the visible spectrum are not absorbed ad therefore remains visible.
light mixtures the human eye is capable in seeing any color by adding different percentages of the three additive primary colors.
color harmonies in photography most commonly known as analogous, monochromatic, complementary, spllit complementary, triadic and quadratic.
analogous the group of colors that lie directly adjacent to each other on the color wheel. this group of colors can have a limited spread of just two colors. or it can spread further along as much as half of the entire color wheel, but as it continues to designate further, it will start to lose its identity as analogous harmony.
monochromatic comprised of one color, with varying values, meaning varying degrees of brightness, or varying degrees of saturation. monochromatic is typically what black and white images seem to be.
complementary comprised of two colors that lie directly across from each other on the color wheel. the spread of color on either side can be increased to a degree to include more color on either end.
split complementary by taking two colors that lie directly adjacent to one of the colors in a complementary color harmony, you get a split complementary harmony. a more difficult harmony to utilize.
triadic combines any three colors equally spaced from each other on the color wheel. this harmony is very similar to a split complementary and in the context of a landscape photograph, where a “single� color in an image can often span over a slight range of that color, sometimes the color harmony identity in the image can be blurry.
quadratic combining two colors that are separated by two hues of color along the color wheel constitues a diadic color harmony. this harmony has some flexibility since it is difficult to quantify what exactly makes up a single hue of color.
references “additive and subtractive” study accredited business, study.com/academy/lesson/additive-color “color contrast” albers-explanation, cs.brown.edu/courses/albers-explanation “color relativity” color beyond the wheel, purple own studios, purpleownstudios.com/blog/color-relativity-color-theory.html “josef albers” wikipedia, wikimedia foundation, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/josef_albers ross, peter w. “the relativity of color.” synthese, vol. 123, no. 1, 2000, pp. 105–129. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20118268. landscape imagery, color theory. tedgorecreative.com/ blog/2016/2/8/imc0w2lc0ie6b1jtixfht4jgqyjvnu
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