Basic notes on Light and Color

1. ColorPrimary Colors
 Three colors that make up all the other colors
Two types of primary colors
Additive Primary colors (Light)
Red, Green, & Blue
When you add all of these
together, you get white light!
Subtractive Primary colors (Art)
Cyan, Magenta, Yellow
When you add all of these
together you get black. (When you
subtract all these out you get white.)
When light hits a surface:
The color you see is reflected,
The rest of the colors are absorbed.

2. (If you have a projector and a couple of mirrors, you can also project the slide and
reflect the primary colors on top of each other to see the secondary colors.)
The computer screen uses RGB (Red, Green, Blue) to show colors. By
adjusting the colors of the circles, you can see the different
combinations of primary light colors.

3. ColorPrimary Colors
 Three colors that make up all the other colors
Two types of primary colors
Additive Primary colors (Light)
Red, Green, & Blue
When you add all of these
together, you get white light!
Subtractive Primary colors (Art)
Cyan, Magenta, Yellow
When you add all of these
together you get black. (When you
subtract all these out you get white.)

4. Red
Again, if you have a
projector, project this
on a wall and get
different colored
objects and see how
they look under
different colored light!
Make sure your
room is completely
dark.
Key Idea:
The color you see is the reflected
color. If the paint and the light share
the same color, you’ll see it. If they
don’t, it will look black.So
•Blue light on purple will look blue because purple is made of blue and red.
•Blue light on green will look blue because green is blue and yellow.
•Blue light on red will look black because red doesn’t have any blue pigment to
reflect the blue light.

5. Red
The rods and cones in your eyes allow you to see.
Rods detect brightness.  120 million rods in your eyes.
Cones detect color: 3 types: R, G, B  6 million cones in your eyes.

6. Red
The rods and cones in your eyes allow you to see.
Rods detect brightness.  120 million rods in your eyes.
Cones detect color: 3 types: R, G, B  6 million cones in your eyes.