Colour vision is the human ability to distinguish between objects based on the wavelengths of the light they emit, reflect or transmit. The human eye and brain together translate light into colour.
- Colour is not a property of electromagnetic radiation, but a feature of visual perception.
- The human eye, and so human perception, is tuned to the range of wavelengths of light that make up the visible spectrum and so to the corresponding spectral colours between red and violet.
- Light, however, is rarely of a single wavelength, so an observer will usually be exposed to a spread of different wavelengths of light or a mixture of wavelengths from different areas of the spectrum.
- An observer’s perception of colour is a subjective process as the eyes and brain respond together to stimuli produced when incoming light reacts with light-sensitive cells within the retina at the back of their eye.
Colour vision is the human ability to distinguish between objects based on the wavelengths of the light they emit, reflect or transmit. The human eye and brain together translate light into colour.
- The human eye, and so human perception, is tuned to the visible spectrum and so to spectral colours between red and violet. Light, however, is rarely of a single wavelength, so an observer will usually be exposed to a range of different wavelengths of light or a mixture of wavelengths from different areas of the spectrum.
- Colours can be measured and quantified in various ways; indeed, a person’s perception of colour is a subjective process whereby the brain responds to the stimuli that are produced when incoming light reacts with several types of cone cells in the eye. In essence, different people see the same illuminated object or light source in different ways.
About trichromatic colour vision (Trichromacy)
The trichromatic colour theory explains the system the human eye uses to see colour.
- Trichromatic colour theory is based on the presence of three types of light-sensitive cone cells in the retina at the back of our eyes, each sensitive to a different spread of colour.
- All the colours we observe result from the simultaneous response of all three types of cones.
- The sensitivity of cone cells is the physiological basis for trichromatic colour vision in humans.
- The fact that we see colour is, in the first instance, the result of interactions among the three types of cones, each of which responds with a bias towards its favoured wavelength within the visible spectrum.
- The result is that the L, M and S cone types respond best to light with long wavelengths (biased towards 560 nm), medium wavelengths (biased towards 530 nm), and short wavelengths (biased towards 420 nm) respectively
Related diagrams
Each diagram below can be viewed on its own page with a full explanation.
