Color Theory Articles

[cameronrad]

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to share these color theory articles I've had bookmarked. The author of the blog is mainly showing examples of game design however the concepts/theories can be applied to photo quite easily.

They've helped me a bit as they've been a pretty good summary of some larger color theory articles/principles.


Colour, Part 1: Introduction to the science of colours

http://ldcompanion.wordpress.com/2013/09/11/colour-part-1-introduction-and-the-science-of-colours/

Colour, Part 2: Organizing colour

http://ldcompanion.wordpress.com/2013/12/03/colour-part-2-organizing-colour/

Colour, Part 3: Colour wheels, gamut masks and schemes

http://ldcompanion.wordpress.com/2014/02/25/colour-part-3-colour-wheels-gamut-masks-and-schemes/

Colour, Part 4: Experiencing colour

http://ldcompanion.wordpress.com/2014/07/11/colour-part-4-experiencing-colour/

Colour, part 5: General colour attributes

https://ldcompanion.wordpress.com/2015/02/04/colour-part-5-general-colour-attributes/

Colour, part 6: Reds

https://ldcompanion.wordpress.com/2015/03/12/colour-part-6-reds/

Cheers!
- Cameron

[skoobey]

Re: Color Theory Articles

Second one is wrong. That is based on printing rather on the real color wheel.

There are no primary or secondary colors, there is just hue, saturation and lightness(but in retouching it is really important to know how to separate these properties, and recognize what is lightness, what is saturation, what is hue, and importance goes in that order sa that's how we notice values).

Now, wheel goes 360 and that is the truth. I also agree on the perception of size and appearance of objects based on the hue and saturation.

More important is how do colors "play" against one another. Warm against cool, saturated against desaturated. Again, I think separately of color and lightness, some may disagree, but I found it easier to deal with them separately.

All of these samples are really suited more to designers than retouchers.

[klev]

Re: Color Theory Articles

The author covers an enormous amount of ground, and those books sound interesting. Some of his more technical assertions are somewhat misleading though. CMY doesn't add to a perceived black, even in theory. It's a common misconception though. It's a combination of 3 inks with non-linear transmissive characteristics relative to ink density. I would rely on them more for the design components than the science topics.

If you wanted something that deals specifically with fundamentals details of colorimetry, I would probably suggest Noboru Ohta's book if your local library can request a copy from another library. Some academic libraries might also have the ebook version.

[Shoku]

Re: Color Theory Articles

CMY doesn't add to a perceived black, even in theory.

Yes it does. In printing there are two types of black. Flat black (black ink only) and Rich Black (four color black). CMY is added to the Flat black to make it appear deeper, and blacker. Flat black is perceptively lighter. With four channels the combined total ink density should be 400 (100% for each ink), but no press can handle that much ink effectively. The common separation is 60c 40m 40y 100k, which gives a total ink density of 240. Some presses can handle 80c 60m 60y 100k, for a total density of 300, which is the density limit of SWOP V2. Our offset presses can handle 90c 80m 80y 100k for a total ink density of 350, Our HP digital press is limited to 70c 50m 50y 100k for a total of 270. Flat black is always 100 for density.

One of the issues we faced when picking monitors to use when our Barco's needed replacing, was finding an LCD or LED monitor that could display the difference between flat black and rich black. The NEC was hands down the best of the bunch we tested.

[klev]

Re: Color Theory Articles

Yes it does. In printing there are two types of black. Flat black (black ink only) and Rich Black (four color black).

I probably could have worded it better (often the case). The article commented on the perception of neutral black vs the perceived color that is actually achieved when viewing a print under proofing conditions (say a typical viewing booth with a D50 or D65 light source just for the purpose of a quick example). You wouldn't typically print with just cyan, magenta, and yellow. While I suppose you would eventually build up enough density if the paper could handle it, I'm not sure the balance of returned light would still converge to the expected range (using that term very loosely).

One of the issues we faced when picking monitors to use when our Barco's needed replacing, was finding an LCD or LED monitor that could display the difference between flat black and rich black. The NEC was hands down the best of the bunch we tested.

I've encountered fewer bugs with Eizo's software packages compared to Spectraview. Other than that I still really like NEC.

[AKMac]

Re: Color Theory Articles

One of the issues we faced when picking monitors to use when our Barco's needed replacing, was finding an LCD or LED monitor that could display the difference between flat black and rich black. The NEC was hands down the best of the bunch we tested.

Yes there definitely is a difference. I work every day with an Eizo and an NEC side by side and I have them both calibrated and set up to be as identical as possible, but still they are different. The NEC looks sharper and the blacks slightly richer. But the EIZO is perhaps a bit more neutral/accurate. It's not something you would be aware of if you didn't have a side by side comparison.

[andrewrodney]

Re: Color Theory Articles

I've encountered fewer bugs with Eizo's software packages compared to Spectraview. Other than that I still really like NEC.

And isn't the NEC a bit less money?
As to the comment, But the EIZO is perhaps a bit more neutral/accurate, it would be interesting to know if this is true and how it's tested. Hopefully using something like PatchTool's Display Check and a good reference colorimeter.

[klev]

Re: Color Theory Articles

And isn't the NEC a bit less money?

It's definitely less money. The software bugs can be incredibly irritating, but I haven't seen a really recent version of spectraview. As I mentioned I do like NEC. I still have an Eizo around, although I don't have as much of a need for it now. As for accuracy, it's interesting to know how well they do with less typical colors that don't fall out of gamut.