What’s your favorite color?
I’ll bet you didn’t say white, did you?
Well, why not? You don’t think of white as a color?
Actually, pure white contains all colors. Well, kind of. It’s really equal wavelengths of red, green and blue light. And color is only possible with light. So if you say white is your favorite color, the truth is that your favorite color is in there somewhere. You may have thought that white is the absence of all color, as in paper white. Well, that depends on if you are talking about additive or subtractive color theory. I'll get into more of that in a future blog.
By experimenting with prisms, English physicist Sir Isaac Newton discovered that white light can be broken down into its component colors.
One time back in my college days, some friends of mine had just moved into an apartment and asked me to help them paint all their walls the only color they were allowed to paint them - white. Of course, this would eventually turn into a white-themed party (anything becomes an excuse for a party when you are 22 years old). Other than the white t-shirts and gym socks everybody was wearing; the cauliflower, marshmallows and vanilla ice cream everyone was eating; and the Barry White, Whitesnake, and Average White Band music that was blasting from the speakers (I’m sure The White Stripes would have been big at that party had they been around back then), what I remember most about that party was that it was rather bland and boring.
Some people say variety is the spice of life. I say color is the spice of life. I love good black and white photography - artists like Ansel Adams have done some incredible work. But color has IMPACT! Color surrounds us. Color inspires us. Color infuriates us. Color promotes passion and love. Color calms and sedates us. Think of a deep blue sea, a soft red rose, or a lush green forest. These colors are also associated with other senses... You can smell the ocean thinking about the blue sea, feel the thorns on the Red rose, and almost taste the mossy foliage of the lush green forest, just by thinking of their color.
If a tree falls in that lush green forest, but there is no one around to hear it, does it make a sound? You may have heard that question before. What if there is no light in that same forest. Do the trees have any color? If there is no one around to see the trees, do they have any color? Does the color green even exist? And what is the meaning of life anyway? Okay, sorry, that’s a different blog. I’m getting too deep here. But the short answer is no. Without light there is no color. The sensation that we call color only exists in our minds. Color is really an event that happens between three participants -an object, a light source to illuminate that object, and a human observer. I say human because animals see color differently. Certain mammals can see into adjacent portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, like infrared or ultraviolet. Which is probably why my dachshund barks at things I clearly do not see. Or maybe she is just a yappy wiener dog. That’s probably it.
Because color is such a complex phenomenon, it should come as no surprise that trying to mass-produce it with any degree of accuracy can be a very tall order. Color is both art and science. Color management tries to take some of the subjective “art” out of color reproduction, and apply some science to it. And it actually does it pretty well. Color reproduction is not rocket science, but it’s not an episode of Jerry Springer either. Actually, it’s probably a lot closer to rocket science than you might think. And that makes color management very important.
In upcoming blogs, I will try to de-bunk some common color myths, explain more about color theory and color management, and dive into topics like proper viewing conditions, soft proofing, ink jet proofing, Photoshop color issues, what’s new at Widen Enterprises, and how to build a better taco. Actually, leave out the taco thing. That’s not rocket science. It’s pretty easy to make tacos. Although I’m sure somebody has a blog about it somewhere in cyberspace.
If the study of color, art and the human vision system is as interesting to you as it is to me, you might like to read a book called “Vision and Art: The Biology of Seeing” written by Margaret S. Livingstone. She is a professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. She has studied light, color and how different regions of the brain process visual information in parallel and in different ways because of their physiological characteristics. It is very interesting reading. She also has a presentation online at:
http://www.nyas.org/ebriefreps/ebrief/000500/presentations/livingstone/player.html
My next several blogs will cover news from the upcoming PIA/GATF Color Management Conference in Phoenix from December 8-11.
And remind me to write about the dark, dull party I attended in 1991 where I ate black olives and heard music from Black Sabbath, The Black Crowes, and Frank Black. Yawn.
Mark
