Color plays a huge role not only in art, but also in everyday life. Few people think about how much different combinations of shades affect human perception, mood and even thinking. This is a kind of phenomenon that operates according to its seemingly ghostly, but clear laws. Therefore, it is not so difficult to subordinate to your will so that it works for the good: you just need to figure out how it works.
The concept
Color is the subjective characteristic of electromagnetic radiation in the optical range, which is determined based on the emerging visual impression. The latter depends on many physiological and psychological reasons. His spectral composition and the personality of the perceiving person can equally affect his understanding.
In simpler terms, color is the impression a person receives when a beam of light rays penetrates the retina. A ray of light with the same spectral composition can cause different sensations in different people due to the distinctive features of the sensitivity of the eye, therefore, for each person, the shade can be perceived differently.
Physics
Color vision, which appears in the human mind, includes semantic content. A tone appears during the absorption of light waves: for example, a blue ball looks like this only because the material from which it is created absorbs all shades of a light beam, except for the blue that it reflects. Therefore, when we talk about the blue ball, we only mean that the molecular composition of its surface is able to absorb all colors of the spectrum, except for blue. The ball itself has no tone, like any object on the planet. Color is born only in the process of lighting, in the process of perceiving waves by the eye and processing of this information by the brain.
A clear distinction between the shade and its basic characteristics of the eyes and the brain can be achieved through comparison. Therefore, values can only be determined by comparing color with another achromatic hue, including black, white and gray. The brain is also able to compare the hue with other chromatic tones in the spectrum by analyzing the tone. Perception refers to the psychophysiological factor.
Psychophysiological reality is, in fact, a color effect. The hue and its effect may coincide with the use of harmonic halftones - in other situations, the color may change.
It is important to know the basic characteristics of colors. This concept includes not only its actual perception, but also the influence of various factors on it.
Basic and additional
Mixing certain pairs of colors can create the impression of white. Opposite tones are called complementary, which when mixed give gray. The triad RGB is named for the main colors of the spectrum - red, green and blue. Additional in this case will be cyan, magenta and yellow. On the color wheel, these shades are located in opposition, opposite each other so that the meanings of the two triples of colors alternate.
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The main physical characteristics of color include the following items:
- brightness;
- contrast (saturation).
Each characteristic can be quantified. The fundamental differences between the basic characteristics of color are that brightness implies lightness or darkness. This content in it is of a light or dark component, black or white, while contrast provides information about the content of the gray tone: the lower it is, the higher the contrast.
Also, any shade can be set by three distinct coordinates representing the main characteristics of the color:
- tone;
- lightness;
- saturation.
These three indicators are able to determine a specific shade, starting from the main tone. The main characteristics of color and their fundamental differences are described by the science of color, which is engaged in a deep study of the properties of this phenomenon and its impact on art and life.
Tone
The color characteristic is responsible for the location of the hue in the spectrum. Chromatic tone in one way or another is assigned to one or another part of the spectrum. Thus, shades located on the same part of the spectrum (but differing, for example, in brightness) will belong to the same tone. When changing the position of the shade in the spectrum, its color characteristic changes. For example, when blue is shifted in the green direction, the tone changes to cyan. Moving in the opposite direction, blue will tend to red, taking on a purple hue.
Coldness
Often, a change in tone is associated with the warmth of the color. Red, red and yellow shades are classified as warm, associating them with fiery, "warming" colors. They are associated with the corresponding psychophysical reactions in human perception. Blue, violet, blue symbolize water and ice, referring to cold shades. The perception of “warmth” is associated with both physical and psychological factors of an individual personality: preferences, mood of the observer, his psycho-emotional state, adaptation to environmental conditions and much more. Red is considered the warmest, blue is the coldest.
It is also necessary to highlight the physical characteristics of the sources. Color temperature is largely associated with the subjective feeling of warmth of a particular shade. For example, the tone of thermal study with increasing temperature passes through the “warm” tones of the spectrum from scarlet to yellow and, finally, white. However, cyan possesses the highest color temperature, which is nevertheless considered a cold shade.
Among the main characteristics within the hue factor is also activity. The most active is called red, while green is the most passive. This characteristic can also be slightly modified under the influence of the subjective gaze of different people.
Lightness
Shades of the same hue and saturation may relate to different degrees of lightness. Consider this characteristic in terms of blue. With the maximum value of this characteristic, it will be close to white, having a pale bluish tint, and with a decrease in value, blue will become more and more similar to black.
Any tone with a decrease in lightness will turn into black, and with an absolute increase - white.
It should be noted that this indicator, like all other basic physical characteristics of color, can largely depend on the subjective conditions associated with the psychology of human perception.
By the way, shades of different tones, even with a similar actual lightness and saturation, are perceived by a person in different ways. Yellow is in fact the lightest, while blue is the darkest shade of the chromatic spectrum.
With high performance, yellow is different from white even less than blue is distinguishable from black. It turns out that the yellow tone has even greater own lightness than the “dark” is characteristic of blue.
Saturation
Saturation is the level of difference between the chromatic hue and the achromatic lightness equal to it. In fact, saturation is a characteristic of depth, color purity. Two shades of the same tone can be of different levels of fading. With a decrease in saturation, any color will become closer to gray.
Harmony
Another of the common characteristics of color, which describes a person’s impression of a combination of several shades. Each person is endowed with his own preferences and tastes. Therefore, people have different ideas about the harmony and disharmony of different types of colors (with the characteristics of color, characteristic of them). Harmonious combinations are called similar in tone or shades from different intervals of the spectrum, but with a similar lightness. As a rule, harmonious combinations do not have high contrast.
As for the rationale for this phenomenon, this concept should be considered in isolation from subjective opinions and personal tastes. The impression of harmony arises when the law on complementary colors is enforced: the equilibrium state corresponds to a gray tone of medium lightness. It is obtained not only by mixing black and white, but also a pair of additional shades, if they contain the main colors of the spectrum in a certain proportion. All combinations that do not give gray when mixed are considered disharmonious.
Contrasts
Contrast is the difference between the two shades, found out when comparing them. Studying the basic characteristics of color and their fundamental differences, we can identify seven types of manifestations of contrast:
- Contrast comparisons. The most pronounced are variegated blue, yellow and red. As you move away from these three tones, the intensity of the hue decreases.
- The contrast is dark and light. There are the maximum light and darkest shades of the same color, and between them there are countless manifestations.
- The contrast is cold and warm. The poles of contrast are recognized as red and blue, and other colors may be warmer or colder in accordance with how they relate to other cold or warm tones. This contrast is known only by comparison.
- The contrast of complementary colors - those shades that when mixed give a neutral gray. Opposing tones need each other to balance. Pairs of complementary colors have their own types of contrasts: yellow and violet are the contrast of light and dark, and red-orange and blue-green are the warmth.
- Simultaneous contrast is simultaneous. This is such a phenomenon in which the eyes, when perceiving a particular color, need an additional shade, and in its absence it gives rise to it independently. Simultaneously generated shades are an illusion that does not exist in reality, but it creates special impressions of the perception of color combinations.
- The contrast of saturation characterizes the opposite of saturated colors with faded. The phenomenon is relative: the tone, even without being clean, may appear brighter next to a faded shade.
- The contrast of color distribution describes the relationship between color planes. He has the ability to enhance the manifestations of all other contrasts.
Spatial impact
Color has properties that can affect the perception of depth due to contrasts of dark and light, as well as when changing saturation. For example, all light tones against a dark background will visually come forward.
As for warm and cold shades, then warm tones will come to the fore, and cold tones will go deeper.
With saturation contrast, vibrant colors stand out against the background of muted hues.
The contrast of propagation, which is also called the contrast of the values of color planes, plays a huge role in the appearance of the illusion of depth.
Color is an amazing phenomenon in this world. He is able to influence perception, deceive the eye and brain. But if you understand how this phenomenon works, you can not only maintain clarity of perception, but also make it so that color becomes a faithful assistant in life and art.