Color (continued)
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Fig. 6: Illustration of variations in hue (left panel), saturation (middle panel), and lightness
(right panel). The hue, saturation, and lightness vary with vertical position, starting from the
same color at the top of each patch. The hue changes from short wavelength to long wave-
length (high frequency to low frequency) in going from top to bottom in the left panel. The
saturation
changes from high to low in going from top to bottom in the middle panel. The
lightness goes from high to low in going from top to bottom in the right panel.
(Credit: Thomas Weinacht)
Fig. 7: Light of multiple colors incident on a red apple with a green leaf. The leaf reflects
mostly green light, while the apple reflects mostly red light, leading to the appearance of a
red apple with a green leaf. (Credit: (apple) Alex Staroseltsev/Shutterstock, (rest of figure)
Thomas Weinacht)
Fig. 8: Additive (left) and subtractive (right) color mixing. The left side shows the result of
additive color mixing of red (R), green (G), and blue (B). The right side shows the result of
subtractive color mixing with magenta (M), yellow (Y), and cyan (C).
(Credit: Thomas Weinacht)
Fig. 5: Illustration of hue, saturation, and brightness for light containing multiple
wavelengths. (Credit: Thomas Weinacht)
the blue wavelength portion, and magenta by subtract-
ing the green wavelength portion. Accordingly, mixing
magenta and cyan paint produces blue because magenta
has the green wavelength portion removed and cyan has
the red portion removed, leaving only the blue portion.
The
mixing of additive and subtractive colors is illustrated in
Fig. 8. Note that mixing all three additive colors produces
white because one has added the three primary colors that
stimulate all three receptors in the eye the same way that
white light would. In contrast, mixing the three subtractive
primary colors leads to black because one has subtracted
out each of the colors that stimulate the three receptors in
the eye.
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