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Sir Isaac Newton was an English physicist, mathematician, and color theorist who decomposed light into the colors of the spectrum, devised the Particle Theory of Light, and created the first color circle.
Newton discovered the color spectrum, which is made up of the seven hues of visible light: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet, arranged on the spectrum by wavelength. He shone light through a prism, and that beam of light split into the color spectrum.
Out of this, Newton created the first color circle. The circle had the letters R-O-Y-G-B-I-V around it, which correspond to the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
Each one of the colors in the color circle is a hue, which is quite simply the name of a color. So red is a hue, red-orange is a hue, orange is a hue, etc.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer and artist who studied the physiological effects of color.
Goethe opposed Newton's analytical data and created another color circle, or color wheel, based on his own observations.
We will now look at a few characteristics of color:
Value is another term for lightness or darkness.
In the image below, you can see the various hues changing as values go from light to dark.
Saturation is another term for the intensity of color, and it usually refers to the purity or vividness of a color. In the blocks below, the middle hue is the base color.
As you move to your left, the color is less saturated; it starts to get really dull. If you move to the right of the base color, you get the opposite effect; you have a higher saturation, and the color appears more vivid and lively.
Saturation is important for commercial design and photography. If you lower the saturation of a photo, it starts to lose some of its color. If you go the opposite way and increase saturation, it will start to get more vibrant. However, too much saturation creates an unnaturally vivid look and can oftentimes result in noise and artifacting.
Color temperature is a measure in Kelvin used to describe lighting conditions when viewing color.
If you look at the flame in the image above, it gets bluer as it gets hotter.
Now look at the color temperature chart below.
The color temperature chart gives you a breakdown of color temperature in relation to other things in the real world.
For instance, 1,700 Kelvins, which is that top orange on the chart, is similar to a match flame. If you jump somewhere in the middle to 4,100 Kelvins, you get moonlight. If you go all the way to the bottom, you get clear blue sky.
Typically, we talk about color temperature as being either warm or cool.
EXAMPLE
If you've ever bought bulbs at a store, they're usually rated in wattage and oftentimes color temperature. While differences in the ratings seem minor, you'll see a pretty big difference when you put the bulbs in your home.Color temperature can also affect the color perception in a design, such as a graphic design, web design, or photograph.
Source: SOURCE: THIS WORK IS ADAPTED FROM SOPHIA AUTHOR MARIO E. HERNANDEZ
