COLOR Physics

Dr. Shekh Md. Mamun Kabir

Colour Physics 1
 Knowing Color
Knowing by color

Colour Physics 2
 Knowing Color
Knowing by color
In any environment color attracts attention. An infinite number of colors surround
us in our everyday lives. We all take color pretty much for granted but it has a
wide range of roles in our daily lives: not only does it influence our tastes in food
and other purchases, the color of a person’s face can also tell us about the
persons health. Even though colors affect us so much and their importance
continues to grow , our knowledge of color and its control is insufficient, leading
to a variety of problems in deciding product color or in business transactions
involving color. Since judgment is often performed according to a persons
impression or experience, it is impossible for everyone to control color accurately
using common, uniform standards. Is there a way in which we can express a
given color.
Is there a way in which we can express a given color. Accurately describe that
color to another person and have that person correctly reproduce the color we
perceive?
How can color communication between all fields of industry and study be
performed smoothly? Clearly we need more information and knowledge about
color.
Colour Physics 3
 Color is one of the most expressive elements because its quality
affects our emotions directly and immediately. In representational
art, color serves to identify objects and to create the effect of
illusionistic space.

Orange Bowl and Yellow Apples

Colour Physics 1980, Oil on canvas 4
A color expression often means ten different colors to ten
different people
“Name this color” is a very difficult subject.

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 To what extent can words express color?
Common color names and systemic color names.

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 Basic Concepts of Color
Why does an apple look red?

No light, no color. The three elements of light, vision,

and object are necessary for us to percieve color:

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Light

Requirements of Color
Aspects of Colour
 Natural Science
 Chemistry

Source  Physics
Observer
 Biology

Object

Colour Physics
 Nature of Light

Light is a form of electromagnetic radiation and that visible light is only a small section
of a much broader band of electromagnetic radiation travelling as a wave motion.

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Colour Physics
What is color and how do we see it?

Color vision begins when the sensitive cells in the retina absorbs lights

Color vision culminates when the visual cortex of the brain interprets the
transmitted nerve impulses as a color.

Light sources

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What is color and how do we see it? → Definition

1. In the illuminant mode of observation,

Lights enters the eye directly from the light source

It is this light that stimulates the sensation of what we call the color.

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Colour Physics
What is color and how do we see it? →Definition

2. In the object viewing mode,

The colorants presents in the materials selectively absorb part of the light
illuminating it.

Then reflect or transmit the remainder into the eye of the observer

It is this light that stimulates the sensation of what we call the color.

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Perception depends on three factors:

i. The wavelength distribution, or color, of the light source illuminating the objects.

ii. The degree of reflection or transmission of each wavelength of the incident light
by the objects.

iii. The visual response of the observers' eye to the wavelengths of the light entering
from the objects.

 The numerical specification of color requires the numerical description of these

factors.
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Light
Illuminant
Wavelength Colour Complementary
color
Sunlight Incident light Fluorescent light 400-435

435-480

480-490

490-500

500-560

560-580

580-595

595-605

605-750

The colors described as a result of

selective light absorption process are
referred to as chromatic. If no light is
reflected we recognize as black.
White, black and grey referred to as
Additive Color Mixing Subtractive Color Mixing achromatic.
Colour Physics
 The Eye
The sensation of colour that we experience arises from the
interpretation by the brain of the signals that it receives via
the optic nerve from the eye in response to stimulation by
light.

At low levels of illumination only the rod cells are active and a type of vision known as scotopic vision,
while at medium and high illumination levels only the cone cells are active is called photopic vision.

There are about 6 million cone cells 120 million rod cells and 1 million nerve fibers distributed across
the retina.
Colour Perception
The Bird’s View

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Colour Perception
A defect in one of the three types of cones
leads to “Color Blindness” difficulty in
distinguishing colors.

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Causes of Colour

 Colour from simple excitations: colour from gas excitation and colour
from vibrations and rotations.

 Colour from ligand field effects: Colour from transition metal

compounds and from transition metal impurities.

 Colour from molecular orbitals: Colour from organic compounds and from
charge transfer.

 Colour from band theory: Colour in metals, in semiconductors, in doped

semiconductors and from colour centers.

 Colour from geometrical and physical optics: Colour from dispersion,

scattering, interference and diffraction.

Colour Physics
 Basic Concepts of Color
If we separate light into its different wavelengths, we create a spectrum. We
can then create the different colors by mixing the separated wavelengths of
light in varying intensities.

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Colour Physics
 Color

• Color is the
perceptual quality of
light.

• The human eye can

distinguish almost
ten million colors.

Colour Physics
Part 1 – Properties of Light
• Light travels in straight lines:

Laser

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 • Light travels VERY FAST – around
300,000 kilometres per second.

At this speed it can go

around the world 8
times in one second.

Colour Physics
• Light travels much faster than sound. For
example:

1) Thunder and lightning start at

the same time, but we will
see the lightning first.

2) When a starting pistol is fired

we see the smoke first and
then hear the bang.

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• We see things because they reflect
light into our eyes:

Homework

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 • Shadows
Shadows are places where light is “blocked”:

Rays of light

Colour Physics
 Part 2 - Reflection
• Reflection from a mirror:

Normal

Incident ray Reflected ray

Angle of Angle of
incidence reflection

Mirror
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 • The Law of Reflection

Angle of incidence = Angle of reflection

In other words, light gets reflected from a surface at

____ _____ angle it hits it.

The
same !!!

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 Clear vs. Diffuse Reflection

• Smooth, shiny surfaces

have a clear reflection:

Rough, dull surfaces have a

diffuse reflection.

Diffuse reflection is when

light is scattered in different
directions
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 Using mirrors
• Two examples:

2) A car headlight

1) A periscope

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The colours of the rainbow:

• Red
• Orange
• Yellow
• Green
• Blue
• Indigo
• Violet
Colour Physics
 Adding colours
• White light can be split up to make separate colours.
These colours can be added together again.

• The primary colours of light are red, blue and green:

Adding blue and red Adding blue and

makes magenta green makes cyan
(purple) (light blue)

Adding red Adding all

and green three makes
makes yellow white again
Colour Physics
 Seeing colour
• The colour an object appears depends on the colours of
light it reflects.

For example, a red book only reflects red light:

White Only red light

light is reflected

Colour Physics
A pair of purple trousers would reflect purple light (and red
and blue, as purple is made up of red and blue):

Purple light

A white hat would reflect all seven colours:

White
light

Colour Physics
 Using coloured light
• If we look at a coloured object in coloured
light we see something different. For
example, consider a football kit:

Shirt looks red

White
light

Shorts look blue

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• In different colours of light this kit would look different:

Red
Shirt looks red
light

Shorts look black

Shirt looks black

Blue
light

Shorts look blue

Colour Physics
 Types of Materials
Transparent Translucent

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Color comes to our eyes from
objects due to:

• Emission
• Reflection
• Transmission
• Interference
• Dispersion
• Scattering

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Emission: the object itself is a
source of light.

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 Reflection:
certain
frequencies
are reflected
from the
object,
others are
absorbed.
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A particular material absorbs the light
frequency that matches the frequency
at which electrons in the atoms of that
material vibrate.
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Transmission: certain frequencies
are transmitted through the object,
others are absorbed.

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 Scattering:
the reradiation
of certain
frequencies of
light, striking
small,
suspended
particles.

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Interference: constructive and
destructive interference.

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 Dispersion: the
angular
separation of a
light wave during
refraction.

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Why do we see the colors of the
rainbow?

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Why is the sky blue?

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Why is the ocean sometimes
blue, gray or green?

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Interaction of Light with Objects
Transmission
Reflection

Scattering Absorption Emission

X N R1
Emission N N
R2
Excited State
Excited State

∆E1
E
∆E2 X N R1
N N
Ground State R2
Ground State
Colour Physics
 Interaction of Light with Objects

h 170nm
LUMO
LUMO antibonding
LUMO

HOMO
Energy

LUMO
HOMO
HOMO
bonding
HOMO

CH2 CH2

 max = 165 nm  max = 217 nm  max = 268 nm

Colour Physics
 Interaction of Light with Objects
Attributes of Colour
 Hue (shade)
 Strength (intensity)
UV-Vis Spectroscopy  Brightness

1.0
maxwith
certain UV Visible
extinction 
Absorbance

0.0
200 400 800
Wavelength, , generally in (nm)
Colour Physics
Interaction of Light with Objects

Bathochromic
 Interaction of Light with Objects
Limitations of the Beer-Lambert Law

3
Absorbance

0
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5

Dye Conc (mol/L)

Aggregation & Absorption efficiency

Colour Physics
 Interaction of Light with Objects
Used routinely
When colour assessed on the
 Textile fabric basis of reflectance
 Paint films and Plastics measurements, it is commonly
consider-
 Colour matching  Hue
 Dye and Pigment recipe  Value (colorfulness)
 Chroma (saturation)
prediction
Visible reflectance Spectroscopy
Reflectance

Wavelength (nm)
Colour Physics
 Red Blue Green White

Yellow Cyan Magenta

Primary Colors of Light

Colour Physics
 Red, green and blue (RGB):
RGB is another way to use 3 numbers to specify a color
instead of using an intensity-distribution curve or HSB
• In addition to using Hue, Saturation
and Brightness (HSB);
• Many (but not all) colors can be
described in terms of the relative
intensities of a light mixture of a certain
wavelength red, wavelength green and
wavelength blue lights
• 650-nm red
• 530-nm green
• 460-nm blue
yellow
• These are called the additive primaries 530-nm green 650-nm red
• The mixing of the additive primaries is
called additive mixing
• Additive mixing is usually done by cyan magenta
mixing primary color lights with
different intensities but there are other
ways to be discussed later 460-nm blue

Colour Physics
 Complementary additive colors
• Definition of complementary color
(for additive mixtures):
• The complement of a color is a
second color.
• When the second color is additively
mixed to the first, the result is white. yellow
• Blue & yellow are complementary green red
B + Y = W. white
• Green & magenta are
complementary
G+M=W cyan magenta
• Cyan and red are complementary
C+R=W blue
• Magenta is not a wavelength
color— it is not in the rainbow
• There is at most one wavelength
complementary color for each
wavelength color (Fig 9.9)

Colour Physics
Additive mixing of colored light
primaries

Colour Physics
Complementary colored lights
(additive mixing)

Colour Physics
• mixed with will make .

• mixed with will make .

• mixed with will make .

Colour Physics
 POINTILLISM
George Seurat ( December 2,1859 – March 29,1891) developed a
painting technique called pointillism, where dots of pure
color are positioned next to each other on a canvas.
From a distance, the colors appear to mix and create
new colors.

Colour Physics
 Colors are organized into
4 major groups:

• 1. Primary Colors
• 2. Secondary Colors
• 3. Intermediate Colors
• 4. Neutral Colors

Colour Physics
 1. Primary Colors
• Primary colors cannot be produced by
mixing other colors together. They can only
be made from nature or from chemicals.
• Primary colors make all the other colors.
• The primary colors are
RED, BLUE, and YELLOW

Colour Physics
 2. Secondary Colors
• Secondary colors are produced by mixing
primary colors
• Primary color + Primary color=Secondary Color

• + Violet

• + Orange

• + Green

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 3. Intermediate Colors
• Intermediate (in-between) colors are produced by mixing a
primary and secondary color that are side-by-side on the
color wheel

• Primary color+ Secondary color=Intermediate Color

• blue-green, blue-violet,

• red-violet, red-orange

• yellow-orange, yellow-green

Colour Physics
4. Neutrals

white,
black,
gray, {values}
and browns

Colour Physics
Red, Yellow & Blue
 Red+Yellow=Orange

Blue+Red=Violet
When you mix a primary color with a primary color next
to it on the color wheel you get a secondary color.
Yellow+Blue=Green
Complementary colors are colors that are
opposite of each other on the color wheel,
such as blue and orange, red and green,
violet and yellow.
-
-
-
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 Warm and cool color schemes

Cool colors

Warm colors

Colour Physics
 Henri Fantin-Latour
Local color (objective color) French, 1836 - 1904
Still Life, 1866
oil on canvas, 62 x 74.8 cm (24 3/8 x 29 1/2 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Colour Physics
 Marie Laurencin, 1925
Mother and child
Oil on canvas
Subjective color

Subjective colors are when the colors do not represent the actual local color.

Colour Physics
consist of different values (tints and shades) of one single color.

Tint - color plus white to make the color lighter.

Shade - color plus black to make the color darker.

Colour Physics
Thank You

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