Skip to main content

So.. I was talking to Jingles the other day... I think i have him stumped Smiler. *all in good fun* But i'm really curious as to finding this answer. So.. in school, i learned primary colors are Red, Yellow, Blue. mix each Primary color, with another primary color to get a new color, secondary color, Now, Also in school, i learned each color has a temperature. (red being warm, blue being cold.. etc..) Does this go for lights as well?? I know light's primary colors are RGB (which by the way totally confuse me Smiler ). but do they have temperatures like art colors do?..? does what i say make sense? Smiler
Original Post
There are a few things different between paint and light. First, the primary colors of light are indeed RGB, not RYB like paint. With those colors, you can make any color in the rainbow in theory. Ask me a color, and I can probably give you rough values to make that color. TVs, projectors, and screens also work off of this RGB system. When black is needed, simply turn off the light. This is while DLP and Plasma contrast ratios are so much higher then LCD since they are constantly back lit. Next, adding these colors together, you get 'white' instead of 'black' like paint. Paint absorbs more light as you mix them, lights adds more light bringing you closer to white.

Now, lights project part of the color spectrum, 380-750nm is what the typical human eye can see.

Violet: 380-450nm
(Sorry Newton, no Indigo)
Blue: 450-495nm
Green: 495-570nm
Yellow: 570-590nm
Orange: 590-620nm
Red: 320-750nm

Anything below 380nm is ultra violet and above 750nm is infrared. The whole spectrum combined it white. Take white light and shine it through a prism, and you get a rainbow. Rainbow's in the sky are caused by sunlight shining through moisture which acts as a prism.

Now that you have that understanding of what light is and where it comes from, we move onto the temperature question. All like sources generate a color temperature. Color temperature is the color of a black-body radiator (basically a piece of iron) at a certain temperature in kelvin. Starts red and turns orange, yellow, white, blue, and then violet. Now pure white is about 4500K (more like 4300K if you want to get technical). Basically, what wavelengths a light projects more of.

Now, does it have a temperature like paint? Well, I would think more so since paint is technically the absence of light (the paint absorbs colors to make colors, hence why it moves towards black) then a light source which makes the 'temperature' in the first place. Like wise, we never really 'see' light, just colors reflected off a medium of some sort. Its rather confusing to explain, be basically you don't 'see' light so much as its effects on objects, and that's what you actually 'seeing'.

Add Reply

Post
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×