-=[color theory]=-

[Majik_Imaje]

Understanding color theory will make your photographic jounrney much easier if you understand some simple basic principles.

Even though you have a high tech camera that has white balance built in and photoshop's power of a "click" or two to fix "color (s)" is not enough.
You must understand HOW COLORS WORK. with each other. This is essential to learn if your ever going to understand the "Art" of photography.

Red Green Blue are primary colors you see the "sliders" in photoshop RGB -

each of these three colors has a "compliment" or secondary color.

the opposite of red is cyan
-- - green is magenta
- - blue is yellow
This is COLOR "theory" but it is easily proven in a variety of ways.
This is photo color theory, not watercolor or oil color theory those have "different primaries"

If I take a round piece of blank cardboard flat, circular and divide it into thirds, and paint each third one of the Primary photo colors.. R, G, B.
those three colors,, when I spin that circle what "color" will you see??

Black is not.. .. a "color". it is the ABSENCE OF ALL COLOR(S)

WHITE is the presence of ALL color(s) PRIMARIES / OR secondaries.

This can be simply illustrated by using Lights.. in any 3D program.

Using a program called 3D studio max a red light and green and blue lights were created and aimed or pointed toward the center of any surface. The unedited results of what happens when you mix light is obvious.

Spin that cardoard.. and your gonna see..WHITE.
WHERE the primary lights overlap, the secondary colors are present and visible.
Learing HOW to use COLOR(s) and their compliemnts or secondaries in Juxtaposition with each other will produce the most pleasing eye popping results using COLOR.



Photoshop is the norm.. ha! I am different, I use Painter because I like the color wheel.. and many other features that adobe doesn't have. don't be fooled; there are a GREAT many other image editing programs that can do just as good of a job. far cheaper.!


In the darkroom, the six different colors are controled by using just two filters - Yellow & Magenta !! Any of the six colors are corrected just by using these two !!

In the darkroom if you have a print that is too blue - you subtact yellow.

If you have a print that is too yellow - you add yellow to get rid of the yellow !! Have I got you confused yet ??

Colors & their opposites are a must to master to learn how to correct for excessive color shifts

So to sum it all up if your print is too yellow / move the blue slider
if your print is too magenta (pink) move the green slider
if your print is too Cyan (turquoise) move the Red slider.

UNDERSTANDING these six colors and how they function with each other is simple to learn .. the only problem you might encounter. is that when you MISTAKE blue for cyan or cyan for blue...

[windrider86]

This is a really great tutorial. I am always struggling with colors so I found this very helpful.
Thank you

[Majik_Imaje]

Most photographers cannot see excess color shifts until they are 'pronounced' as in + 30 or higher, then it is easily apparent.

Training your eyes to see the difference requires a special tool - not software. Software cannot get it PERFECT. Adobe photoshop or other image editing programs can only get you close(r). but not perfect.

To train your eyes to learn and discern the difference(s) you need practice with CC filters made by kodak.

These are 3 inch by 8 inch cards that have 3 windows in each of them with colored filters.

There are six cards to the set. Each card has +10 - + 30 + 50 (something like that) don't quote me on the different values or densities. I haven't used these since the mid seventies.

These cards will teach you and show you (visibly) how to see excess color as little as +2 !!

David Levine - an extremly successfull wedding photographer in malden mass - does more than 400 weddings each year. He is one of the biggest names back east in this category. He heard about me and wanted to hire me - he needed someone that cold print color for him.
When I first met him, He said I am told you know how to print and correct color images in processing. Here is a negative I want one print of this that is perfect. I will give you 15 sheets of paper. I asked how many copies you want ?? He said one. I replied; I only need two sheets to accomplish that. He said NO ONE can do it in two, it always takes at least a half a dozen or more.

This guy literally dragged me to 3 of the biggest color labs in boston - Each of them wanted to hire me on the spot. ONLY because of how much money I could save them in wasted paper. They pleaded with me and begged me.. we will pay you 12 bux an hour.. I laughed and said I am making 18 an hour as an electrician.. ?? go figure !!

A STRONG FOUNDATION in the basics of COLOR is necessary to understand how to correct for any color shift(s).

Your digital computer processed image maybe very close, but watch what happens when you slightly tweak each of the primary / secondary colors. WATCH .. THAT COLOR POP !!!

[FormElement]

You seem to have an excellent grasp of what you know intuitively. It merits additional careful and disciplined explanation, because it IS complicated and is not necessarily understood by even very experienced image editing individuals. There are entire books written on the subject of light and color.

One thing that is not often noted here is that we work is multiple color spaces, with multiple media. Traditional reprodution on press is done with four pigment colors, and those are CMY(K). Essentially light blue, magenta, yellow, (and black). Your color wheel discusses the colors of LIGHT which are essentially the opposite (Red Green and Blue). This is actually quite important, as it describes how we interact with the image reproduction, media, and gamut...which brings up the second point.

When reproducing in any media (print, film, photographic paper, TV, computer monitor, etc.) one must also understand the target media available GAMUT, which is the actual range of colors and brightnesses that can be reproduced in that media. It varies substantially.

It would be very helpful to see three examples of "imperfect" color and what you would do to make "perfect" color. Note though that your readers will almost universally be viewing in sRGB on uncalibrated monitors under flourescent, oh...or maybe tungsten, oh...or maybe diffuse sunlight....on CRT...no...maybe LCD....oh...no, some of them now have LED monitors.

It also helps to examine what exactly IS perfect color? Most images we look at and think "wow" the color is "perfect" are not accurate to the actual original light captured by the photographer. They have been processed and interpreted by the film manufacturer and the film developer, and/or at least one other person, and/or a specific computer algorhythm before you see them, and the mind does not record a perfect memory of the light and shadow at the moment of capture. We apply color adjustments to correct for variances in the ambient light temperature, and we don't even realize in casual observance that the ambient color of light varies so dramatically. Largely that's affected by tthe fact that we can "see" literally ten thousand times what the camera sensor can record, and our brain interprets the light in a very subjective way.

I have tested for "perfect" color vision and what you might perceive as perfect color balance may still not agree with what I perceive.

All of the above is to say that "move slider X to adjust Y color" is not necessarily as helpful as it seems. One needs to understand exactly why and how one wants to adjust color Y in relation to color Z for image reproduction condition #45 and viewing condition #92.

Thanks and sorry for the minor rant.

[LoveDSLR]

Luckily my color meter includes CC value, index and CC filter.

[FormElement]

Originally Posted by LoveDSLR

Luckily my color meter includes CC value, index and CC filter.

Cheater!

[LoveDSLR]

Originally Posted by FormElement

Cheater!

Ha, ha. I had wasted too much time with the chemicals and Color Analyzer back in the old days. Now I only need to worry about the color theory in composition.

[Majik_Imaje]

Originally Posted by LoveDSLR

Ha, ha. I had wasted too much time with the chemicals and Color Analyzer back in the old days. Now I only need to worry about the color theory in composition.

The easiest way to use a color analyzer was not to use the sensor on the actual negative but on the area between frames. Then your calibration was right on perfect to achieve consistent results. Read the film emulsion itself not the exposed portion. But those days are gone.

By 'perfect color' my meaning or use of the word is probably different than what you might think. My intent is to match the original subject color.

Vericolor FILM had this important characteristic. It was made to match the original subject and it did !! I have laid 16 x 20 enlargments on top of the orignal canvas or porclean and had the colors match ZACTLY right on.

Being able to achieve that netted; me one heck of a job for a very prestegious art gallery that only featured the top ten artists in the world.

DIGITAL IS DIFFERENT than film the colors are different the texture is too magaziney for my personal tastes.

Color correction (by moving sliders) is not a random act. You must know the exact color your trying to get rid of, if you pick the wrong color to correct for your going to make a mess.

It is too easy to mistake cyan for blue !! when people see the color cyan they always think blue and then they can't correct for it because they are using the wrong color. A print can only be one color wrong !! you canont have multiple color shifts in one image.

[Majik_Imaje]

In digital you can have multiple color shifts in the same image - one of the pitfalls of digital.

film is much more accurate than digital - with much better results-Actually if you want to see the best color in the world UNDISPUTED for almost 75 years or longer.. Kodak's DYE TRANSFER process will knock the socks off anything that exists or will exist in years to follow.

In the darkroom there are basically just two different methods for producing color prints.

Additive color printing using Red Green Blue filters

Subtractive color printing using Cyan Magenta Yellow filters

By far: the most popular method ALWAYS employed was subtractive color printing BECAUSE: only two filters are ever used.

But in Additive color printing 3 filters must be used seperately through 3 different exposures and 3 different lengths of time for each color.

Thus it is much too technical and time consuming and not practical.

Whereas; subtractive color printing is much quicker, easier, and much more predictable !

I am sure the same is true in today's offset color printing techniques.

COLOR SEPERATIONS are just masks that have one color on them.

yellow (image) yellow or blank

Magenta

Cyan As you look at each colored mask it only contains one color of your entire image. but when you place them all together you have perfect color !!

The idea is to 'generate' white - equal amouts of the three primaries or secondaries will produce WHITE = the presence of ALL COLOR(s).

YOU can actually make color seperations in adobe photoshop then print them on clear film and watch the miracle take place in front of your very own eyes !!

[ScottLevine]

Cyan can be used to build exposure time if a negative is under exposed and you would like to increase time for image manipulation. IE, if you add 20cc of each color, including cyan, it acts as a ND filter.