Colour Theory

Colour Theory

Cinematography and Visual Language

• Sir Isaac Newton was one of the first scientists to investigate colour theory. Around 1671-72 he discovered the origin of colour when he shone a beam of light through an angular prism and split it into the spectrum - the various colors of the rainbow.

• This simple experiment demonstrates that colour comes from light - in fact, that colour is light.

• Scientists investigate the properties of colour theory whereas artists explore its visual effects. Colour in art can be used in many different ways.

• Some artists are fascinated by the effects of light; some are interested in the symbolic meaning of color; and some use color to express their emotions.

Colour Wheel

• The colour wheel is a useful device to help us explain the relationships between Primary, Secondary and Tertiary colours.

Colour Wheel

PRIMARY COLOURS

Red, Yellow and Blue are the primary colours. These are the three basic colours that are used to mix all hues.

PRIMARY COLOURS

SECONDARY COLOURS

• Orange, Green and Purple are the secondary colours. They are achieved by mixing two primary colours together.

SECONDARY COLOURS

TERTIARY COLOURS

• Tertiary colours are more subtle hues which are achieved by mixing a primary and a secondary colour that are adjacent on the color wheel.

TERTIARY COLOURS

COMPLEMENTARY COLOURS

• Opposite colours are diagonally opposite one another on the colour wheel. Opposite colours create the maximum contrast with one another. You can work out the opposite color to any primary colour by taking the other two primaries and mixing them together. The result will be its opposite or ‘complementary’ colour.

COMPLEMENTARY COLOURS

ANALOGOUS COLOURS

• Analogous colours sit next to one another on the colour wheel. These colours are in harmony with one another.

ANALOGOUS COLOURS

ADDITIVE and SUBTRACTIVE COLOUR

• Additive Colour involves the mixing of colored light. The colours on a television screen are a good example of this. Additive primary colors are red, green and blue.

• Subtractive Colour involves the mixing of coloured paints, pigments, inks and dyes. The traditional subtractive primary colours are red, yellow and blue.

ADDITIVE and SUBTRACTIVE COLOUR

THE SPECTRUM

• The spectrum is the colours of the rainbow arranged in their natural order: Red - Orange - Yellow - Green - Blue - Indigo - Violet. The mnemonic for this is ROY G BIV.

THE SPECTRUM

HUES

• Hue refers to the pure spectral colours of the

rainbow. Hue is the term that encompasses all the names we give to specific colours such as red, blue, yellow, and so on. Hue is the name of a distinct colour of the spectrum ( ROY –G – BIV)

Value

• • The range of colours from light to dark in an

image.•

Contrast

• The distribution of dark, medium, and light tones in an image.

Contrast Ratio

• An image’s contrast ratio is the difference between the darkest and the lightest tonal values within that image.

Chroma

• The C component of the LCH (luminance/chroma/hue) colour model. Chroma is similar to saturate, and sometimes is referred to as colourfulness. It describes the purity of a specific hue at a specific lightness.

• No chroma would be grey, low-chroma pastel, high chroma, a vivid pure hue.

Saturation

• The purity of a colour, independent of its hue

and brightness and a lack of grey pollution. The more gray a colour contains, the lower its saturation is. Colours of the highest saturation have no contamination from other hues.

Kelvin

• • A unit of absolute temperature. An object at

zero Kelvin has no energy. •

Colour Temperature

• The measurement of the colour of light radiated by an object known as a black body while it is being heated. Colour temperature is measured and expressed in a unit called Kelvin. As this black body increases in Kelvin, its colour goes from warm (red) to cool (blue)

Colour Temperature

• Natural day light is not the white light our eyes perceive it to be.

• Our eyes automatically white-balance everything we see.

• Film reads light much differently than the eye, it interprets the colour of daylight as a bluish hue.

Colour Temperature

• 1700k – the light from a match• 1850k – candle flame• 2800-3300k – incandescent light bulb• 3400k studio lamps• 5000-5400k – Direct sunlight at noon • 6000-7500k – overcast daylight• 7000-8000k – 0utside in the shade on a sunny

day

Colour Correction Filters

• Cinematographers enhance and manipulate film stocks using various filters and coloured gels.

• CTO – Colour Temperature Orange• (Converts Daylight into Tungsten)• CTB – Colour Temperature Blue• (Converts Tungsten light into Daylight)• CTB comes in Quarter, Half, and Full Blue

Hot and Cold

Warm and Cool

Light and Dark