Colour and Design in 2 and 3 Dimensions

Task 1

Light and Color

Light is a type of electromagnetic radiation. Electromagnetic radiation is made up of waves that transport energy. This energy travels in tiny packets known as photons. There are many different types of electromagnetic radiation, and together they make up the electromagnetic spectrum, which includes: radio waves, microwaves, infrared waves, visible light waves, ultraviolet waves, X-rays, and gamma rays. Waves can be measured by their wavelength (the size of the wave) and frequency (how many waves pass a point during a time interval). All of the energy inside a photon has its own wavelength and frequency.  

….photons of visible light (light that humans can see) have wavelengths of 400-700 nanometers (10-9 meter or billionths of a meter), and a frequency of 430-750 trillion (1012) cycles per second….

….The light from the sun contains millions of photons of variable wavelength, not all of which are visible to humans. Within the range of wavelengths that make up visible light, different wavelengths correspond to different colors. The light seen from the sun appears white, as it contains all wavelengths and thus all colors. (Imagine a prism breaking white light into the colors of the rainbow.) When photons hit an object, they may be absorbed, transmitted or reflected. An object appears a certain color when all other wavelengths are absorbed except the color being seen, which is reflected. For instance, plants appear green, as they contain chlorophyll, which absorbs red and blue light and reflects green light. Objects that appear white reflect all wavelengths, while objects that appear black absorb all wavelengths…

(Professor/Scientist of How Stuff Works.co, Australia)

All type of light is not same, they have different value of contrast and brightness

There is a variety in the color makeup of light that appears white. Sunlight is almost perfectly balanced light source—it contains all colors in nearly equal quantities. But daylight does experience color shifts. The color appearance of objects changes dramatically in early morning or in the shade. Electric light sources can also exhibit variations in color makeup. Incandescent lamps tend to produce more red and yellow light than green and blue, and appear to be “warm” in color. Because of the way incandescent light is produced, little can be done to manipulate its color characteristics. With fluorescent and high intensity discharge lighting, this latest technology makes it possible to manipulate the color makeup of a given light source.

Picture 1: image of a cartoon figure under a spot light

Picture 2: image of the cartoon figure under fluorescent light

Picture 3: image of the same cartoon figure under sunlight

 The difference between this two images is the quality of the sharpness of the color. As in the picture 1, the photo seems to bring up a thick contrast point on the subject matter. This is because the direct light (spot light [LED]). Moving to the other picture (picture 2), this photo is good in color for the subject matter. The problem is, it does not have any saturation quality on the subject matter. Besides, the yellow color of the object looks dull. This two results are totally different when the photograph is taken under a sunlight. As we see in the picture 3, direct sunlight shows and highlights the originality of the color on subject matter.

White Light and Bright Colors

Generally speaking, whiter light (comprised of equal amounts of all colors) makes colors appear more natural and vibrant. However, some portions of the spectrum are more important to a light’s color makeup than others. Red, blue and green—the primary colors of light—can be combined to create almost any other color. This suggests that a light source containing balanced quantities of red, blue and green light can provide excellent color appearance even if this light source is deficient in other colors in the spectrum.

Conclusion

In a process of documentation or photographing an object, the image quality in point of contrast, brightness, saturation level of color and the levels of each color angle is depend on the type of light where the photo session is taken place. This is because, not all the object is suitable for all type of lighting especially fruits in high rated color. Besides, the wavelength of all light is not balanced as wanted to imaging an object.

Reference:

Osram sylvania : Relationship between color and light. [Online] Available at: https://www.sylvania.com/en-us/innovation/education/light-and-color/Pages/relationships-between-color-and-light.aspx [Accessed on 1 August 2015].

(2011) Photo composition articles: photographic lightning. [Online] Available at: http://photoinf.com/General/NAVY/Basic_lighting_techniques-_Outdoor_and_Existing_ligt_photography.htm [Accessed on 1 August 2015].

Picture 1, 2 & 3 :

Images from mobile phone