Primary Colors of Light

'The whole world, as we experience it visually, comes to us through the mystic realm of color. - Hans Hofmann

Our world is filled with different colored living and non-living beings. Just take a minute to look at the surrounding you are in. You will observe so many colors. So, what is the phenomena that gives color to the living and non living beings? White light coming from the sun contains all the possible color variations, white is not a color at all. But, it is a presence of all the frequencies of colors in the visible color spectrum wheel. The visible light spectrum is ROY G BIV which are the Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet. Combining these range of frequencies in the visible light spectrum creates white light. But, it is also possible to create white light by combining only three distinct frequencies of the light, when the three of them are widely separated on the visible light spectrum. A common example is by mixing the three primary colors. Here are the primary and secondary colors of light explained.

Primary and Secondary Colors of Light

Explained below are the three primary colors and three secondary colors of light, and what happens when you mix these colors.

3 Primary Colors of Light
There are three primary colors. When these three primary colors of light and pigment are mixed together they create the secondary colors of light. These colors are RED, GREEN and BLUE. These constitute the color wheel chart as the basic three colors.


Secondary Colors of Light
Explained above was what are the primary colors, now let us look at the secondary colors. The secondary color of light are created by mixing the primary colors. The secondary colors of light are cyan, magenta and yellow. Here are the equations which will help you understand what color we get when the two primary colors are mixed together.

BLUE + GREEN = CYAN

GREEN + RED = YELLOW

RED + BLUE = MAGENTA

However, the other way is also possible. You can produce primary colors by mixing up the secondary colors of light. For example, if you mix up yellow and cyan you will be able to create green. The addition of primary colors creates the secondary color and so they are known as additive primaries. While cyan, magenta and yellow are called subtractive primaries. Here are the equations that will help you understand, what colors you will get when you mix the secondary colors of light.

CYAN + YELLOW = GREEN

YELLOW + MAGENTA = RED

MAGENTA + CYAN = BLUE

When the right frequencies of red, blue and green are mixed, they produce white. So in theory, when the equal amounts of light or three pigments which are yellow, cyan and magenta then black or a gray color should be produced, but they tend to create a muddy brown color. Just like the secondary colors, there are also tertiary colors, which are created mixing primary and secondary colors.

When a light falls on an object, three things can happen. It can get reflected, absorbed or can be transmitted. So, the way the light acts with an object, determines the color of the object. For example if the light is completely reflected, the object seems to have white color. But, if all the light is absorbed then the object will have a black color.

This was the primary colors explained, and the theory behind the color which is rendered to objects due to its frequency. There are many experiments you can do to check out the reflection, one of the simplest is to take a disc and check its different colored reflections at different angles.