Re:Color wheels are wrong? How color vision actually works
by lutorm on Tuesday February 01, 2011 @02:27PM
(#2166885)
Maybe you mistyped, but cyan paint absorbs red light, it reflects everything but red, i.e. cyan.
Re:Color wheels are wrong? How color vision actually works
by jessriedel on Tuesday February 01, 2011 @05:11PM
(#2167663)
yes I did
Re:Color wheels are wrong? How color vision actually works
by kronusaturn on Wednesday February 02, 2011 @01:58AM
(#2169398)
Partly because cyan and magenta pigments good enough that you can mix them with yellow and get a decent red and green are a relatively modern invention. Partly because the reds and greens you get still aren't nearly as vivid as unmixed pigments. Partly because it's easier to start with a pigment that's close to what you want and adjust it than to start from scratch with only CMY.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2166782
The artists reds and blues are just approximations to the magenta and cyan of printers.
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So I understand that in order to mimic the electromagnetic stimulation to the cones you only need to control the amount of RGB light hitting the retina. And I understand that propagating light is additive, so that for light producing displays you mix amounts of RGB, whereas pigments subtract light, so that for printing you mix amounts of CMY. (C paint absorbs non-R light, M paint absorbs non-G light, and Y paint absorbs non-B light.)
I further (kind of) understand that once printing and CRT screens are explained, there are additional properties of light due to the filters described in the article.
But can someone explain why the artist's paints are different from the CMY ink pigments? It seems like it's either (a) something weird about the way paints mix, (b) artists use paints which somehow take advantage of the filters in the eye, or (c) a combination.