Understanding Colour

Accustomed, as we are today, to having literally hundreds of paint
colours available at the touch of the button on an automatic mixing
machine, as well as the choice of thousands of textiles, printed and
woven in bright design, it is instructive to think of the lengths -
the sheer inventiveness and resourcefulness - to which people have gone
in order to bring colour into their lives.


All paint colours and dyes as we know them today are, derived from
mixing pigment with a binding medium, which allows them to be
transferred onto a surface. Until the middle of the nineteenth century,
when rapid chemical advance were made and pigments began to produced
synthetically, colours were naturally obtained from the minerals and
earth, vegetables and plants that were available. Early mediums
included egg for the making of tempera, and later oil.
There are about eight earth pigment, including sienna, ochre and umber,
and these could be mixed with minerals like iron oxide and copper-based
pigments to give a range of colours that suited every need. Roots like
indigo were used, too. Rare, precious - and correspondingly expensive
- colours ware also made: rich ultramarine blue from crushed, ground
lapis lazuli, and the brightest green from malachite treated in the
same way. The tones and hues of colours differed, of course, from
region to region, which is why we associate today certain colours -
particularly those made from earth and clay - with certain areas.


Yarn, too, was rarely left in its natural, undyed state. From flowers
and fruits to roots and bark - and even shellfish - dyes were
squeezed from the natural world to brings colours to the neutral tones
of wool, linen and cotton. In fact, textile rather than flat planes of
colours seen on wall, are often the starting point for colours
inspirations. Historically, fashion has inspired choices of decorative
colours and it still does. To got to a museum of costume or an archive
exhibition can be positively regenerating - the colour of embroidered
threads on a eighteenth-century brocade waistcoat. The woven design on
a nineteenth-century 'kirking' shawl. Modern fashion can be equally
thought-provoking - booth street and couture fashion are constantly
looking for new ways to use colour, many of which can be translated
into decorative terms. This is also true of accessories : many couture
houses, for example, once designed silk headscarves (an essential for
the elegant woman). Painted design were hand-screened onto silk
squares, and the though and subtlety of colour that went into these
period pieces are text book examples of the use of colour....

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(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> Understanding Colour
>
> Accustomed, as we are today, to having literally hundreds of paint
> colours available at the touch of the button on an automatic mixing
> machine, as well as the choice of thousands of textiles, printed and
> woven in bright design, it is instructive to think of the lengths -
> the sheer inventiveness and resourcefulness - to which people have gone
> in order to bring colour into their lives.

But how does this help me, you might ask?

I am slightly red/green colour blind. I enjoy photography, but I do have
a problem with colour casts on my work.

In the real world, I see colours in a different way that a normal person
does.

Now how can you help _me_?

Dave

"Dave" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>> Understanding Colour
>>
>> Accustomed, as we are today, to having literally hundreds of paint
>> colours available at the touch of the button on an automatic mixing
>> machine, as well as the choice of thousands of textiles, printed and
>> woven in bright design, it is instructive to think of the lengths -
>> the sheer inventiveness and resourcefulness - to which people have gone
>> in order to bring colour into their lives.
>
> But how does this help me, you might ask?
>
> I am slightly red/green colour blind. I enjoy photography, but I do have a
> problem with colour casts on my work.
>
> In the real world, I see colours in a different way that a normal person
> does.
>
> Now how can you help _me_?

I can't, it must be a distressing handicap in photography :-(

Mary
>
> Dave

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:

> Understanding Spamming of low-content sites that have about as much information in them as reading Markov chains.

> All paint colours and dyes as we know them today are, derived from
> mixing pigment with a binding medium,

Dyes don't have pigment in them, that's why they're dyes.

> which allows them to be transferred onto a surface.

So what about dyes that don't merely affect the surface?

> Until the middle of the nineteenth century,
> when rapid chemical advance were made and pigments began to produced
> synthetically,

So what about all the medieval synthetic pigments? OK, so most of them
were horribly toxic and too expensive for wide use, but they were there
and they pre-dated the anilines.

> Early mediums included egg for the making of tempera,

The only thing mediums every made were knocking noises and calico
ectoplasm. If you can't even pluralise the word correctly, why should
we read your spiel?

It's like reading a Steve Aylett novel. All the words are there,
they're just not put together to mean anything.

> There are about eight earth pigment, including sienna, ochre and umber,

I've got at least eight different European _ochres_ in the workshop
right now, let alone the siennas, umbers and the rest of the world's
earth pigments.

> and these could be mixed with minerals like iron oxide and copper-based
> pigments

So which of the minerals aren't earth pigments? And what's ochre if it
isn't an iron oxide.

> Roots like indigo were used, too.

A root? Chinese medicine uses indigo roots but if you're dyeing (rather
than dying) you'll be wanting the leaves of indigo or woad instead.

> the colour of embroidered threads on a eighteenth-century brocade waistcoat.

Please, if you're going to spout this worthless drivel at least learn
what "brocade" actually is, and how it's different from embroidery.
Otherwise you just sound like television.

> Painted design were hand-screened onto silk squares,

Just what is "Painted design[s] were hand-screened" supposed to mean?
Was it painted? Or was it screened?

Dave wrote:
>
> I am slightly red/green colour blind. I enjoy photography, but I do
> have a problem with colour casts on my work.
>
> In the real world, I see colours in a different way that a normal
> person does.
>
> Now how can you help _me_?
>

Just a vague wondering - is there no glasses/filter type thingy available to
those colour blind?

CBA to Google )

Si

Mary Fisher wrote:
> "Dave" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>>(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>>
>>>Understanding Colour
>>>
>>>Accustomed, as we are today, to having literally hundreds of paint
>>>colours available at the touch of the button on an automatic mixing
>>>machine, as well as the choice of thousands of textiles, printed and
>>>woven in bright design, it is instructive to think of the lengths -
>>>the sheer inventiveness and resourcefulness - to which people have gone
>>>in order to bring colour into their lives.
>>
>>But how does this help me, you might ask?
>>
>>I am slightly red/green colour blind. I enjoy photography, but I do have a
>>problem with colour casts on my work.
>>
>>In the real world, I see colours in a different way that a normal person
>>does.
>>
>>Now how can you help _me_?
>
>
> I can't, it must be a distressing handicap in photography :-(

Funnily enough, it isn't. I suffer most when I have taken a photo when
there is artificial light about. I have learned to avoid this by upping
the flash intensity. (The camera might say the light is OK, but I switch
on the flash and avoid colour cast.

I recently tried to produce a new passport photo for my wife. I took it
against the recommended light grey background, but when I came to print
it out it had a yellow/red cast on it. (Even I could see that). I think
the problem came from the fact that the room light was a lot closer to
her face than was the flash gun. Oh well, better luck next time :-)

Mostly, the colour casts come from scans. I scan in a photo and when I
come to print it out, there is a cast on it. The monitor is set up OK,
as is the scanner, but there is some interaction between the scanner and
monitor that I have not found out about yet. I'll get there eventually.

Dave

Mungo "Two Sheds" Toadfoot wrote:

> Dave wrote:
>
>>I am slightly red/green colour blind. I enjoy photography, but I do
>>have a problem with colour casts on my work.
>>
>>In the real world, I see colours in a different way that a normal
>>person does.
>>
>>Now how can you help _me_?
>>
>
>
> Just a vague wondering - is there no glasses/filter type thingy available to
> those colour blind?
>
> CBA to Google )
>
> Si
>
>
An interesting point, but can you point me to the right words to ask
Google please :-)

Dave

Dave wrote:
> Mary Fisher wrote:
>> "Dave" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>>> (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>>>
>>>> Understanding Colour
>>>>
>>>> Accustomed, as we are today, to having literally hundreds of paint
>>>> colours available at the touch of the button on an automatic mixing
>>>> machine, as well as the choice of thousands of textiles, printed and
>>>> woven in bright design, it is instructive to think of the lengths -
>>>> the sheer inventiveness and resourcefulness - to which people have gone
>>>> in order to bring colour into their lives.
>>>
>>> But how does this help me, you might ask?
>>>
>>> I am slightly red/green colour blind. I enjoy photography, but I do
>>> have a problem with colour casts on my work.
>>>
>>> In the real world, I see colours in a different way that a normal
>>> person does.
>>>
>>> Now how can you help _me_?
>>
>>
>> I can't, it must be a distressing handicap in photography :-(
>
> Funnily enough, it isn't. I suffer most when I have taken a photo when
> there is artificial light about. I have learned to avoid this by upping
> the flash intensity. (The camera might say the light is OK, but I switch
> on the flash and avoid colour cast.
>
> I recently tried to produce a new passport photo for my wife. I took it
> against the recommended light grey background, but when I came to print
> it out it had a yellow/red cast on it. (Even I could see that). I think
> the problem came from the fact that the room light was a lot closer to
> her face than was the flash gun. Oh well, better luck next time :-)
>
> Mostly, the colour casts come from scans. I scan in a photo and when I
> come to print it out, there is a cast on it. The monitor is set up OK,
> as is the scanner, but there is some interaction between the scanner and
> monitor that I have not found out about yet. I'll get there eventually.
>

Its called photoshop.

You can correct anything, as I found out when I accidentally picked up
the 'other' camera and took it on holiday..the one that had a 12 year
old slide film in it..I us dto run two cameras - one slide, and one
print..then I dropped the slides and never used that body for that long..


Well I got the slides scanned and was able to actually get all the
colors back to normal..huge boost of the blue, and a huge cut in the
green made sardinia look less like Mars...
> Dave

The Natural Philosopher wrote:
> Dave wrote:
>
>> Mary Fisher wrote:
>>
>>> "Dave" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>>
>>>> (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Understanding Colour
>>>>>
>>>>> Accustomed, as we are today, to having literally hundreds of paint
>>>>> colours available at the touch of the button on an automatic mixing
>>>>> machine, as well as the choice of thousands of textiles, printed and
>>>>> woven in bright design, it is instructive to think of the lengths -
>>>>> the sheer inventiveness and resourcefulness - to which people have
>>>>> gone
>>>>> in order to bring colour into their lives.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> But how does this help me, you might ask?
>>>>
>>>> I am slightly red/green colour blind. I enjoy photography, but I do
>>>> have a problem with colour casts on my work.
>>>>
>>>> In the real world, I see colours in a different way that a normal
>>>> person does.
>>>>
>>>> Now how can you help _me_?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I can't, it must be a distressing handicap in photography :-(
>>
>>
>> Funnily enough, it isn't. I suffer most when I have taken a photo when
>> there is artificial light about. I have learned to avoid this by
>> upping the flash intensity. (The camera might say the light is OK, but
>> I switch on the flash and avoid colour cast.
>>
>> I recently tried to produce a new passport photo for my wife. I took
>> it against the recommended light grey background, but when I came to
>> print it out it had a yellow/red cast on it. (Even I could see that).
>> I think the problem came from the fact that the room light was a lot
>> closer to her face than was the flash gun. Oh well, better luck next
>> time :-)
>>
>> Mostly, the colour casts come from scans. I scan in a photo and when I
>> come to print it out, there is a cast on it. The monitor is set up OK,
>> as is the scanner, but there is some interaction between the scanner
>> and monitor that I have not found out about yet. I'll get there
>> eventually.
>>
>
> Its called photoshop.
>
> You can correct anything, as I found out when I accidentally picked up
> the 'other' camera and took it on holiday..the one that had a 12 year
> old slide film in it..I us dto run two cameras - one slide, and one
> print..then I dropped the slides and never used that body for that long..
>
>
> Well I got the slides scanned and was able to actually get all the
> colors back to normal..huge boost of the blue, and a huge cut in the
> green made sardinia look less like Mars...

IKWYM :-) But when I say 'I like that yellow' and my wife says 'that's
green' I tend to avoid colour changes.

As it happens, I have photoshop and use it a lot, but colour casts beat
me on screen. I'm not too bad when it is printed, (with a little help
from my wife though).

Dave

Dave wrote:
> Mungo "Two Sheds" Toadfoot wrote:
>
>> Dave wrote:
>>
>>> I am slightly red/green colour blind. I enjoy photography, but I do
>>> have a problem with colour casts on my work.
>>>
>>> In the real world, I see colours in a different way that a normal
>>> person does.
>>>
>>> Now how can you help _me_?
>>>
>>
>>
>> Just a vague wondering - is there no glasses/filter type thingy
>> available to those colour blind?
>>
>> CBA to Google )
>>
>> Si
>>
> An interesting point, but can you point me to the right words to ask
> Google please :-)
>
> Dave

Just have a look here:

<http://www.vischeck.com/>

Has tests for several types of colour blindness, simulations of how
colour blind people see things, tool for 'correcting' your images into
how they look to colour blind people, Photoshop plug-ins, etc.

When I first found it, I had a 'this is what the web should be about'
moment.

--
Rod