Dictionary of light, colour & vision

A rainbow is an optical effect, a trick of the light, caused by the behaviour of light waves travelling through transparent water droplets towards an observer. Sunlight and raindrops are ...

This DICTIONARY OF LIGHT, COLOUR & VISION contains a vocabulary of closely interrelated terms that underpin all the resources you will find here at lightcolourvision.org. Each term has its own ...

When light strikes an object, some wavelengths are absorbed and their energy is converted to heat, others undergo reflection or transmission. When light is absorbed by an object or medium, ...

When light is absorbed by an object or medium, its energy excites electrons, causing them to vibrate more vigorously and collide with other atoms, which in turn produces heat. Materials ...

Accommodation refers to the way the lenses inside our eyes accommodate for the fact that objects of interest may be close to or at a distance. Sharp images on the ...

Accommodation The distance between the retina (the detector) and the cornea (the refractor) is fixed in the human eyeball. The eye must be able to alter the focal length of ...

Accommodation refers to the way the lenses inside our eyes accommodate for the fact that objects of interest may be close to or at a distance. Sharp images on the ...

Achromatic means without colour so refers to surfaces or objects that appear white, grey or black. Achromatic colours lack hue or saturation but can be described in terms of their ...

Achromatic means without colour so refers to surfaces or objects that appear white, grey or black. Achromatic colours lack hue or saturation but can be described in terms of their ...

About additive & RGB colour The RGB colour model used by TV, computer and phone screens involves additive colour mixing. The RGB colour model produces all the colours seen by ...

Additive colour is shorthand for the additive mixing of wavelengths of light to produce colour. The method involves mixing wavelengths corresponding with primary colours at varying intensities and projecting them ...

About additive and subtractive colour models There are two main types of colour models, additive and subtractive. Additive Colour Models Additive colour models are used when blending light to produce ...

An additive colour model explains how different coloured lights (such as LEDs or beams of light) are mixed to produce other colours. Additive colour refers to the methods used and ...

An additive colour model explains how different coloured lights (such as LEDs or beams of light) are mixed to produce other colours. The RGB colour model and HSB colour model ...

The general purpose of a colour space is to determine the range of colours available within a specific workflow and may be determined by a user or programmatically. The Adobe ...

The Adobe RGB (1998) colour space was developed by Adobe Systems. It aims to ensure the optimal range of colours available within the RGB colour model are accurately reproduced when ...

About Adobe RGB, ProPhoto RGB & sRGB The most common colour profiles in photography are sRGB, Adobe RGB (1998), and ProPhoto RGB. Adobe RGB, developed in 1998, consists of the ...

Airglow is a faint, continual emission of light originating from the Earth's upper atmosphere, typically between 80 and 400 kilometres in altitude. While often mistaken for distant starlight, it forms ...

Alexander's band (Alexander's dark band) is an optical effect associated with rainbows. The term refers to the area between primary and secondary bows that often appears to be noticeably darker ...

Alexander's band, also known as Alexander's dark band, is an optical phenomenon observed in rainbows. It refers to the region between the primary and secondary bows, which often appears noticeably ...