22-3530 - 01 PHOTO COMMUNICATIONS

color

The first permanent color photograph was taking in 1861 by physicist James Clerk Maxwell who used what is known as the 'color separation' method, shooting three separate black and white photos using three filters: red, green, and blue. He then projected the three images registered with their corresponding filters overlapping them to create a color image. The photo below is the famous tartan ribbon photo, the first permanent color photograph.

View of Agen, France, showing the St. Caprais cathedral, by Louis Ducos du Hauron, 1877. Heliochrome(multilayer dichromated pigmented gelatin process).

Louis Ducos du Hauron, Still life with rooster1869-1879 (ca), Color print, dye imbibition process

Stuffed Birds, 1895 (ca)Joly Color, George Eastman House

The Smithsonian National Museum of American History recently discovered these images, the first 3-D, color stereoscopic photographs of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. Photographer Frederick Eugene Ives took the color images, known as kromograms, six months after the magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck the city on April 18, 1906.

In Lyons, France, Auguste and Louis Lumière, the inventors of the first practical motion picture projector, patented a major breakthrough in the making of color photographs in 1904. The Autochrome Lumière was the first commercially viable and extensively used color photographic process. Introduced to the market in 1907, it remained in production until 1935.

King Frederic VIII and Queen Louise of Denmark, Paris [the first news pictures in color] 1907, 17 June

In Adobe programs, there are two color models you need to know:

RGB & CMYK

RED

GREENBLUE

(K=black)

In Adobe programs, there are two color models you need to know:

RGB & CMYK

RED

GREENBLUE

MAGENTA YELLOW

CYAN

(K=black)

RGB is light. CMYK is ink.

RGB is called additive because all of the colors together at 100% would create white.

RGB is light. CMYK is ink.

RGB is called additive because all of the colors together at 100% would create white.

CMYK is called subtractive because the absence of all ink would leave white.

RGB is light. CMYK is ink.

Taken together, RGB and CMY form a relationship of primaries and secondary colors that can be mixed to

create all of the colors in between.

All six primary colors are made up of one complement and two components.

A 100% fully saturated green also contains no magenta. At all. Magenta also contains no green. They are each other’s complements.

All six primary colors are made up of one complement and two components.

A 100% fully saturated green is composed of equal amount of yellow and cyan only. Yellow and cyan are green’s components.

A 100% fully saturated green also contains no magenta. At all. Magenta also contains no green. They are each other’s complements.

Every color can be de!ned by four essential qualities:

1. HUE

2. SATURATION

3. TEMPERATURE

4. VALUE

Every color can be de!ned by four essential qualities:

Where the color sits in the visible wavelength: “red”, “blue”

1. HUE

Every color can be de!ned by four essential qualities:

The intensity of a color: “!re engine red”, “pastel red”

2. SATURATION

As a graphic designer, you need to be comfortable with with working with RGB (256 values) and CMYK (ink percentages).

How would you increase the saturation of the green sweater? What is the “formula” for the sweater?

In a fully desaturated image, the RGB values will be equal.

In the example to the left, the pixel that is being measured has a value of 33 in all three channels, indicating that it is fully desaturated/neutral.

Every color can be de!ned by four essential qualities:

The intensity of a color: “!re engine red”, “pastel red”

2. SATURATION

Every color can be de!ned by four essential qualities:

The color’s perceived warmth or coolness

3. TEMPERATURE

Every color can be de!ned by four essential qualities:

The tonal value of a color, how light or dark the color is

4. VALUE (or BRIGHTNESS)

Every color can be de!ned by four essential qualities:

The tonal value of a color, how light or dark the color is

4. VALUE (or BRIGHTNESS)

Every color can be de!ned by four essential qualities:

The tonal value of a color, how light or dark the color is

4. VALUE (or BRIGHTNESS)

COLOR EXERCISES

CORRECT WITH: auto color

CORRECT WITH: color balance

CORRECT WITH: levels

CORRECT WITH: channels

CORRECT WITH: curves

CORRECT WITH: hue saturation

CORRECT WITH: match color