- Our ability to perceive and distinguish between colours is crucial to how we experience and understand the world.
- Perceived colour is influenced by the range and mixture of wavelengths and intensities of light that enter the eye.
- Perceived colour can be influenced by the properties of light, objects, and the attributes of visual perception.
- Colour perception tends to prioritize information that is important to an observer, but it may not always be objectively accurate.
- The perceived colour of an object can be influenced by factors, such as the size, shape, and structure of objects, their position and orientation, and the direction of incident light.
- Colour perception can be described by chromatic colour names (such as pink, orange, brown, green, blue, and purple) and achromatic colour names (such as black, grey or white).
- Perceived colour is often a combination of chromatic and achromatic content.
- The state of adaptation of an observer’s visual system can affect colour perception, such as when fatigued cells in the retina produce after-images.
- An observer’s expectations, priorities, current activities, recollections, and previous experiences can all influence perceived colour.
- The International Commission on Illumination (CIE) defines perceived colour as having three main characteristics: hue, brightness (or lightness), and colourfulness (or saturation/chroma).
- Here at lightcolourvision.org we often characterise colour in terms of hue, saturation and brightness and so align our discussions with the HSB colour model.
Related diagrams
Each diagram below can be viewed on its own page with a full explanation.
