Part 3: Colour

Primary Colours
The primary colours traditionally used by painters are Red, Yellow and Blue.  As digital photographers we should be aware of the fact that light and digital technology have a different relationship with colour.

Transmission primaries are RGB.  Mixing coloured light produces different results for example red and green produce yellow. 

We have therefore two ways of dealing with colour.  Technical deals with the process of recording and displaying colour RGB.  Perceptual is to do with the way we see and feel about colour therefore using red, yellow and blue.

Hue
We can think of hue as the essential quality that decides how we name a colour - red, blue for example. 

To alter the hue in an image you can use a coloured filter or change the white balance.  This can also be altered in post production using image-editing software.

Saturation
When we think of a colour we can think of its saturation is it pure, intense, saturated or dull, weak, unsaturated?

Saturation can only be adjusted by using a digital camera where settings like Standard, Neutral and Vivid can be chosen. 

Different hues show maximum saturation at different levels of brightness.

Brightness
We can think of colours in terms of how bright they are.  For example are they very bright, bright, fairly bright, average, slightly dark, dark or very dark.

Brightness can be controlled by exposure.