The Science of Color

Science Afternoons at NIST

November 14, 2011

Toni Litorja
Research Chemist
Optical Radiation Group
Sensor Science Division, Physical Measurements Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
 What is Color?

Source of figure: http://www.yorku.ca/eye/thejoy.htm

“Color Science” by Wyszecki & Stiles (1982)
Color is that aspect of visual perception by which an observer may distinguish
differences between two structure-free fields of views of the same size and shape,
such as may be caused by differences in the spectral composition of the radiant
energy concerned in the observation.

The perception of color requires:

(1) Light

(2) The human visual system

Visible Light
 The electromagnetic spectrum

http://www.webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/1.html

The “optical or visible light spectrum” is the range 380-720 nm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum
Spectral Power Distribution

How light varies with wavelength is called

spectral power distribution
 Different Light Sources
The Sun

Chemical
reactions

Rocks at high temperatures

nanopedia.case.edu/image/solar.spectrum.jpg
Fluorescent lamps Light emitting diodes (LED)
Edison light bulb

Electric field excites the gas inside the Electrons and holes created by an
bulb. Upon relaxation, photns are electric field in a semiconductor
Filament in vacuum released. These strike the fluorescent material recombine to produce light
emits light when heated coating to produce white light
 Color Temperature
Color Temperature—a numerical description of the light color (red-hot, blue-hot)
Expressed in Kelvin units
Common labels:
Color Temperature
Color coordinated temperature
CCT

Incandescent light bulb: 2700 K

LED lamps: 5000 K

Oxyacetylene
torch flame,
>3000 ° C

Note that our everyday description:

Warm lighting—tends towards red
Cool lighting- tends towards blue
…is opposite to the spectrum!
Planck’s radiation law
 Common Light Sources in the Market

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/11/garden/almost-time-to-change-the-light-
bulb.html?pagewanted=all
 Colorimetry of Light Sources

All light sources:

Chromaticity coordinates (x,y), (u’, v’)

White light sources:

Correlated color temperature Tc(K)
Distribution temperature Td(K)
Color Rendering Index (CRI)

Narrow-band sources (LEDs):

Dominant wavelength d (nm)
 The Human Eye

Reproduced from www.handprint.com

The seven layers of the retina
 Color Sensitivity Characteristics
This is called the V-l or photopic curve

Luminance levels of
human vision
 Image of the Retina
Image of the human eye retina by Optical Coherence Tomography

through a fundus camera

microscopic
Image of
rods and
cones

http://www.phys.ufl.edu/~avery/course/3400/vision/
Ishikawa, H. et al, IOVS, March 2009, Vol. 50, No. 3 rod_cone_microscope.gif
Biology of Color Vision
The cones in the retina are responsible
for our response to color
 Biochemical Process of
photopigment sensing light
Ganglion cells compare signals from various
cones

3 signals sent to the brain:

Amount of red-green
Amount of blue-yellow
Brightness (or luminance)
Signal Processing by the Brain for Color Vision

Figure 4
Figure 3 This is a flowchart outlining the
This is a schematic diagram of a major steps in the vision signal
rod cell. The stacked disks contain transduction cascade which occurs
rhodopsin, the complex of opsin between the isomerization of
protein and 11-cis-retinal. At the retinal (which leads to the
synaptic body, the potential formation of metarhodopsin II, the
difference generated as the first reactant in the process
ultimate result of the retinal outlined in this figure) and the
isomerization is passed along to a interpretation of a visual image by
connecting nerve cell, creating an the brain. The steps in this cascade
electrical impulse that will be are discussed in the section
transmitted to the brain and entitled "
interpreted as visual information. Signal Transduction Cascade to Ge
nerate a Nerve Impulse
", below.
Measuring Color
Color
 Color Theory
Aristotle developed the first theory of color Newton’s experiment using prisms

http://www.webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/1B.html
 The Measurement of Color
Colorimetry- branch of color science concerned with specifying numerically the
color of a physically defined visual stimulus

Principle of Trichromacy
(Grassman’s Laws)

There are 3 cone photopigments in the

human retina

Any color can be specified with just three

numbers

This is known from Color

Matching Experiments (1850’s)

Three independent variables (tristimulus

values) are necessary and sufficient to
specify a color match.
 Color Spaces
follow Grassman’s laws.
780 nm
Rk  s    r    d 
380 nm
Tristimulus
780 nm
Continuous
values Gk  s    g    d  functions
R, G, B 380 nm
780 nm
Bk  s    b    d 
380 nm

r , g , b are the color matching functions

Color is specified as a combination of the tristimulus values:

c  Rr  Gg  Bb
CIE 1931 XYZ Color Matching Functions
CIE 1931 Standard Colorimetric Observer

Tristimulus values
2.0
x   ()
y   () X  k   (  )x (  )d

z   ()
Y  k   (  ) y (  )d
1.0
Z  k   (  ) z (  )d


0.0

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750
Wavelength (nm)
CIE 1931 Chromaticity Diagram

Spectrum Color mixing

locus
example:
if two points are
connected by a line,
any chromaticity that
line passes through
can be created by a
mixture of the two
endpoints.
Purple
line

Encompasses all physically-realizable chromaticities

 Color Difference Measurement
• Until ~1950’s, “experienced color matchers” were used for
quality control of product color. The advent of color measuring
instruments enabled automated systems to replace the human
observer.

vs

• Complete automation was hampered by the lack of a reliable

formula to correlate instrument readings with the observer’s
visual judgments of color differences.
 Light Color vs. Object Color

}
Two-dimensional diagrams
Only for light color
No black, grey, or brown

Object color needs another axis: black—white

Object color needs a 3-dimensional diagram
 Color Addition and Subtraction
Primary Colors of Light: Red, Green, Blue
Adding light colors generate new
colors on the color wheel and
becomes lighter as more color is
added.

Additive mixing of colors is what is

operational in any colored display
device (TV, computer monitor)

Subtracting red, green and blue

from white light gives you cyan,
magenta and yellow. Mixing these
colors gives you the colors on the
color wheel. As you add more and
more of cyan, magenta and yellow,
the mixture turns darker towards
black. This is operational in paints,
pigments and printing.
http://www.webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/1BA.html

Mixing pigments and mixing light have very different

color outcomes
http://www.webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/1BA.html
 Web Demo
http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/col_mix/index.html
Why is a rose red?
 Color of Light + Color of Surfaces
2 3.5
1.67 3
relative spectral power

relative spectral power

1.34 2.5
2
1.01
1.5
0.68
1
0.35
0.5
0.02 0
-0.31400 450 500 550 600 650 700 -0.5400 450 500 550 600 650 700
wavelength (nm) wavelength (nm)

NIST video on solid state lighting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjZwECokbwE
Relative power
Object Color Measurement

Relative reflection
Reflection =
S(λ) • R(λ)
400 500 600 700 0

Wavelength (nm) 400 500 600 700

Wavelength (nm)

S(λ)

or
R(λ)
(reflectance factor)
detector
Relative reflectance

400 500 600

Wavelength (nm)
700
sample
 CIE 1976 (L* a* b*) Color Space
(CIELAB color space)
* 1/ 3
L = 116 (Y /Yn ) – 16
* 1/ 3 1/ 3
a = 500 (X /Xn ) – (Y /Yn)
* 1/ 3 1 /3
b = 200 (Y /Yn) – (Z /Zn)
X /X n, Y /Yn, Z /Zn > 0.008856

X, Y, Z : Object color
Xn , Yn , Zn : White reference (perfect diffuser)

Illuminated by a reference source, typically Standard

Illuminant D65 or Illuminant A (described later).
 Object Color Spaces

Three attributes of color are

hue, chroma (saturation), and

Lightness
white
lightness, and are expressed
in a three dimensional space.
Chroma

To allow accurate specification

of object colors and color Hue

differences, CIE black

recommended CIELAB and
CIELUV in 1976.
 Opponent-Color Theory

Three opponent channels:

black vs. white (luminance)
red vs. green
blue vs. yellow

-no perception of reddish-

green or bluish-yellow
-opponent afterimages
Complementary Afterimage
 Chromatic Afterimage

Image from http://www.cybersisman.com/psych1a/unit6/unit6notes.html

Hinton’s lilac chaser
http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/col_lilacChaser/index.html
http://www.huevaluechroma.com/033.php
Chromatic Adaptation
Chromatic Contrast
Luminance Contrast
Check out the http://www.webexhibits.org/
Chapter on Color Vision and Art for various exhibits on contrast
 Object Color and Spectra
http://www.art-si.org/ Demonstration of multispectral imaging

Light reflected from the painting is

separated into bands using a liquid crystal
tunable filter

Instead of conventional single point

spectroscopy, one can see spectra of each
pixel of the whole image
 Multispectral Imaging in Art
Multispectral Imaging of Paintings in the
Infrared to Detect and Map Blue Pigments
Delaney, J.K. et al.

Visible image Short wave infrared image

(Sackler
NAS Colloquium) Scientific Examination of Art: Modern
Techniques in Conservation and Analysis
(2005)
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS
)
 Multispectral Imaging in Art
Through multispectral imaging, scientists
uncover hidden drawings underneath what’s
visible

Pablo Picasso
Le Gourmet, 1901
Chester Dale Collection
1963.10.52

http://www.nga.gov/resources/scienceresearch/analyticalimg.shtm
 Links and References
G. Wyszecki and W. S. Stiles, “Color Science: Concepts and Methods, Quantitative Data and Formulae,”
John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1982.
http://www.yorku.ca/eye/thejoy.htm
http://www.imaging.org/ist/resources/tutorials.cfm
http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/
http://www.acnr.co.uk/pdfs/volume6issue2/v6i2visual.pdf
http://www.cis.rit.edu/mcsl/
http://www.webexhibits.org/about/about.html
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/eyecol.html
http://www.chemistry.wustl.edu/~edudev/LabTutorials/Vision/Vision.html
http://brainconnection.positscience.com/topics/?main=anat/vision-work
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/11/garden/almost-time-to-change-the-light-bulb.html?pagewanted=all
http://handprint.com/HP/WCL/color1.html#spectrum
http://www.huevaluechroma.com/061.php
http://webvision.med.utah.edu/
 Introducing the topic of color
• Start with art images (science of visual perception)
artwork, graphics, advertisements
concept of color wheel and color theory
history of pigments, artist’s views on color
http://www.art-si.org/

• Start with “How Stuff Works” (physical science)

cameras and digital photographs
computer displays
color printers
how consumer products always have the same color (standards)
(e.g., buying paint to match what you want at Home Depot)

• Start with Optical Illusions (bit of both)

http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/
Why Water is Blue