Additive/Subtractive

[kathleen]

Paulette,

zackly! I have had the same thought re the fact that, well, that's where the facts are. (Physics, I mean)

i have been especially befuddled by a lifetime of believing yellow and blue make green not being true anymore. I really don't understand why and have trouble believing that - what is it - red and green? making yellow? can this be?

apparently, but at this point it is more an item of faith than understanding.

I will have to add your link to my list of those with which i am trying to enlighten myself.

thanks

[DJ Dubovsky]

Thank You Kathleen!!! I thought I was the only one who still believes the primarys are red, blue and yellow and the secondarys are violet, orange and green. From kindergarden on, it has been drummed into our heads. Trying to unlearn that is like changing religion or something. Why is it when we paint we mix yellow and blue to get green but now when the printers mix ink it's cyan and yellow. That has been the single most difficult thing to comprehend (or unlearn) since I started this Photoshop thing. I'm glad you voiced that one.
DJ

[kathleen]

sistah!

p.s. e=mc x mc (how do you make "squared", anyway?)

[DJ Dubovsky]

Same way you make "degrees", spell it out. Maybe we should form our own little "color club" for all those die hard fans of the red blue yellow system.
DJ

[kathleen]

sign me up

but really, i'm sure there is an explanation for why what is true for paint is not true for light and it prob. lies in physics, which i never took.

more than one child i taught "blue and yellow make green"; a few breaths later i taught "black makes colors sing" (that from a quilter's book on color theory). i'm glad at least one of the two statements is reliable.

[Doug Nelson]

Well, you gots your "additive" colors, for light (RGB) and your "subtractive" colors, like for paint and ink (CMY).

R+G+B=White
C+M+Y=Black

Now who is this Roy guy, and what's a gbiv?

[DJ Dubovsky]

I got no problem with those additive colors. I just want to know why my paint and their inks (which are pigments) do not work the same. Other than that, I'm cool.
DJ

[kathleen]

yeah. yeah. thass right. way to ask it. tell me that. just tell me that.

[Doug Nelson]

What was the question again?

No, seriously.

[Ed_L]

Once again, I might be wrong, but it makes for conversation . I think the difference is in the colors created by reflective light vs. transmitted light. Red + yellow = orange. Wanna bet?

Ed

[kathleen]

red + yellow = orange is the truth as i used to know it. yellow doesn't make the cut any more for primary.

i think what dj meant is: why is ink not equivalent to paint? yellow plus red in paint equals orange, why not in cymk?

i'm sure it is about light @ it's heart, i read something once that made me think that it had to do with paint being opaque "stuff"; all real vague to me, and, i'm also sure full of physics and stuff i will have to squint to understand.

[DJ Dubovsky]

Exactly!!
DJ

[Doug Nelson]

Well, just out of curiosity, what combo of C, M, and Y makes red? And if you add Y to that, is it orange?

[DJ Dubovsky]

Magenta and yellow. Figure that one out Here's a red with a little purple in it mixed with yellow to get pure red. Oh wait a minute Purple and yellow cancel each other out because they are opposites and you are left with the red. Now I get it....No I don't.

OK Kathleen, you started this mess. Now we're really confused.
DJ

[Doug Nelson]

So equal parts M and Y make 'red'...add some more Y to 'red' and you get orange. Where's the confusion?