Photography basics · Colour

Colour Theory

A Guide for Photographers and Cinematographers

Written by Abin Alex and Anu Joseph.

Creative Hut Academy Library · Last updated 31 October 2026

Abstract

Colour is how the eye and brain read the wavelengths of light that reach them: a surface absorbs some wavelengths and reflects the rest, and what it reflects is the colour seen. This guide explains the science of colour, the colour wheel, the three sets of primaries and why there are three, and the properties of a colour as hue, saturation and brightness. It then considers what colours mean and how photographers and cinematographers control colour in a picture. It is written for photographers and cinematographers.

Keywords: colour theory; colour wheel; primary colours; hue; saturation

What is colour?
How do the eye and brain see colour?
What is the colour wheel?
Why are there three sets of primary colours?
How do hue, saturation and brightness describe a colour?
What do colours mean?
How do photographers and cinematographers control colour?

What is colour?

Short answer. Colour is the effect of light of different wavelengths on the eye and brain. White light holds all the visible colours, and a surface shows the ones it reflects (Hunt and Pointer, 2011).

Visible light covers roughly 380 to 750 nanometres (nm). Violet is at the short end and red is at the long end (Hunt and Pointer, 2011).
Newton used a prism to show that white light is a mixture of colours (Newton, 1704).
A surface absorbs some wavelengths and reflects the rest. A leaf looks green because it reflects mostly green light.
Colour needs a light source. Change the light and the colour of the object changes.
Light itself has colour. Sunlight, tungsten bulbs and LEDs give different mixes of wavelengths. See the white balance guide.

Figure 1. The visible spectrum, from violet at about 380 nm to red at about 750 nm (Hunt and Pointer, 2011).

Colour band	Approximate wavelength (nm)
Violet	380 to 450
Blue	450 to 495
Green	495 to 570
Yellow	570 to 590
Orange	590 to 620
Red	620 to 750

Table 1. Approximate wavelength bands. The edges between colours are not sharp (Hunt and Pointer, 2011).

In photography

A red apple under a green lamp looks very dark. The apple reflects red light, and the lamp gives it almost none to reflect.

In cinematography

A gaffer chooses lamps and gels knowing that the colour of the light changes the colour of the costume, the set and the skin.

[Lecture example slot: a prism splitting sunlight, beside a leaf and a lamp]

Cham tipNo light, no colour. When a colour looks wrong, ask first what the light is doing.

Cham taskPhotograph one red object under daylight, a tungsten bulb and a white LED. Compare the three.

Check yourself: Why does a leaf look green?

It absorbs most red and blue light and reflects green.

Next question ↓Back to contents ↑

How do the eye and brain see colour?

Short answer. The retina has rods for dim light and three kinds of cones for colour. The brain compares the signals from the three cone types to build every colour we see (Hunt and Pointer, 2011).

Rods work in low light and give no colour. Cones need brighter light and give colour and fine detail.
The three cone types respond mostly to long, medium and short wavelengths. They are often called red, green and blue cones (Hunt and Pointer, 2011).
Cameras and screens copy this idea. They use three channels, red, green and blue.
Staring at one strong colour tires the cones for it. Look away at a white wall and you see an afterimage in the opposite colour.
A colour is judged against its surroundings. The same grey looks lighter or darker on different backgrounds (Albers, 1963).
Red-green colour vision deficiency is far more common in men than in women (Birch, 2012). Check important colour work with that in mind.

In photography

Judge a print under the same kind of light it will hang in. A print that looks right at your desk may look different in a warm shop.

In cinematography

A colourist grades in a dim room with a neutral grey surround, so that the eye is not fooled by the colours around the monitor.

[Lecture example slot: an afterimage chart and a grey patch on two backgrounds]

Cham tipDo not trust one look at one colour. Compare it with its neighbours and look away to rest the eye.

Cham taskStare at a bright red patch for 30 seconds, then look at a white wall. Write down the colour you see.

Check yourself: What do the three cone types respond to?

Long, medium and short wavelengths, often called red, green and blue.

Next question ↓Back to contents ↑

What is the colour wheel?

Short answer. The colour wheel is the spectrum bent into a circle, so that you can see how colours relate. Newton drew the first colour circle, and the artists’ wheel has 12 colours (Newton, 1704) (Itten, 1973).

Newton joined the two ends of the spectrum into a circle (Newton, 1704).
Itten’s wheel has 12 parts: three primary, three secondary and six tertiary colours (Itten, 1973).
Colours opposite each other are complementary. Colours next to each other are analogous. The colour schemes guide shows how to use them.
Goethe’s Theory of Colours, first published in 1810, looked at how colour works on the eye and the mind, not only as light (Goethe, 1840).
The hue wheel in Lightroom and Photoshop is the RGB wheel, with red opposite cyan. It is not the painter’s wheel.

Figure 2. A 12-colour artists’ wheel: red, yellow and blue as primaries, orange, green and purple between them, and six tertiary colours.

In photography

Look at a photograph and name its main colours. Then find them on the wheel. This shows quickly whether the colours are close together or opposite.

In cinematography

A production designer plans a palette on a wheel before shooting, so that sets, costumes and lights work together.

[Lecture example slot: a colour wheel next to a photograph with its palette marked]

Cham tipLearn the wheel in order. It is the map for every colour decision after this.

Cham taskPick any photograph. Name its three main colours and mark them on the wheel.

Check yourself: How many colours are on the 12-part wheel?

Twelve: three primary, three secondary and six tertiary.

Next question ↓Back to contents ↑

Why are there three sets of primary colours?

Short answer. Painters, printers and screens mix colour in different ways, so each uses its own primaries. RYB is for paint, CMYK is for ink and RGB is for light (Hunt and Pointer, 2011).

RGB is additive. Screens, cameras and projectors start with black and add red, green and blue light. All three together make white.
CMYK is subtractive. Inks absorb part of the light that comes back from white paper. Cyan, magenta and yellow together give a dark, muddy colour, so black ink, the K plate, is added (Hunt and Pointer, 2011).
RYB is the traditional artists’ set. It is easy to teach, but cyan, magenta and yellow mix a wider range of colours than red, yellow and blue (Hunt and Pointer, 2011).
A primary colour cannot be made by mixing others. A secondary colour mixes two primaries. A tertiary colour mixes a primary with the secondary beside it.
Additive pairs: red and green make yellow, green and blue make cyan, red and blue make magenta. Subtractive pairs: cyan and yellow make green, magenta and yellow make red, cyan and magenta make blue.

Figure 3. Additive mixing of light (left) and subtractive mixing of ink (right).

Photoshop mode	What it is	Typical use
RGB Color	Red, green and blue channels, 0 to 255 each	Screens, web, photo editing
CMYK Color	Cyan, magenta, yellow and black channels	Work for print
Grayscale	One channel, up to 256 greys	Black and white photographs
Bitmap	1 bit: each pixel is black or white	Line art and logos
Duotone	Grayscale printed with one to four inks	Toned prints
Indexed Color	Up to 256 colours from a fixed palette	GIFs and simple web graphics
Lab Color	Lightness plus two colour axes, independent of the device	Moving colour between devices

Table 2. Photoshop colour modes. The first four are described in Adobe’s image mode help (Adobe, n.d.).

In photography

A bright screen blue can print duller. The screen makes it from light, and the printer cannot reproduce every RGB colour with CMYK ink.

In cinematography

Monitors and projectors are additive. Film prints used dyes, which are subtractive. A grade is checked on the device the audience will use.

[Lecture example slot: a screen close up showing red, green and blue dots, beside a CMYK print dot pattern]

Cham tipChoose the colour mode by the output: RGB for screens, CMYK for print.

Cham taskOpen one photograph in RGB and convert a copy to CMYK. Compare the brightest colours.

Check yourself: Which set of primaries do cameras and screens use?

RGB, the additive primaries of light.

Next question ↓Back to contents ↑

How do hue, saturation and brightness describe a colour?

Short answer. Hue is the name of the colour, saturation is how pure it is, and brightness is how light or dark it is. These are the three basic attributes of how a colour looks (Fairchild, 2013).

Hue is the colour itself, its place on the wheel, set by its dominant wavelength.
Saturation, also called chroma, is how free a colour is from grey. High saturation is vivid and low saturation is muted.
Brightness, also called value or lightness, is how light or dark a colour is.
A tint is a hue with white added. A tone is a hue with grey added. A shade is a hue with black added.
Red, orange and yellow are warm colours. They seem to come forward. Green, blue and purple are cool colours. They seem to go back.
HSL and HSB both use hue as an angle from 0 to 360 degrees. In HSL, 50% lightness is the pure colour and 100% is white. In HSB, 100% brightness is the pure colour and white needs low saturation.

Figure 4. One red as a pure hue, a tint (white added), a tone (grey added) and a shade (black added).

Term	What it is	To change it
Hue	The colour itself	Move round the wheel
Tint	Hue plus white	Add white
Tone	Hue plus grey	Add grey
Shade	Hue plus black	Add black
Saturation	Purity or intensity	Add grey or the opposite colour to lower it
Brightness	Light or dark	Add white or black

Table 3. The properties of a colour.

In photography

In Lightroom open the HSL panel. Lower the saturation of the blues to calm a harsh sky. Raise the luminance of the oranges to open up skin.

In cinematography

A DOP keeps the saturation of the set low so that the skin and one key colour stand out. A colourist keeps the same control in the grade.

[Lecture example slot: one photograph with hue, saturation and lightness sliders moved in turn]

Cham tipChange one property at a time. Then you can see which one made the difference.

Cham taskTake one photograph. Raise the saturation, then lower the lightness, then shift the hue. Save three versions.

Check yourself: What is the difference between a tint and a shade?

A tint adds white. A shade adds black.

Next question ↓Back to contents ↑

What do colours mean?

Short answer. Colours carry meaning, but the meaning depends on culture and context. Some links, such as red with love and anger, appear in many countries (Jonauskaite et al., 2020).

Goethe was among the first to study the effect of colour on the mind. He called red, orange and yellow the plus colours and blue the minus colours (Goethe, 1840).
A study of people in 30 nations found shared colour and emotion links, for example red with love and anger and yellow with joy (Jonauskaite et al., 2020).
Meaning changes with culture, the task and the colours around it (Elliot and Maier, 2014). White is worn at many weddings in the West and is a colour of mourning in several Indian traditions.
Claims that a colour shows a person’s personality are popular belief, not science.
Brands use colour to be recognised. Think of the red of a cola or the blue of a social network.

Colour	Common associations
Red	Love, anger, energy, danger
Yellow	Joy, light, hope
Blue	Calm, trust, sadness
Green	Nature, growth, health
Orange	Warmth, enthusiasm
Purple	Royalty, mystery, creativity
Black	Night, power, mourning
White	Purity, peace, simplicity

Table 4. Common colour associations. Treat them as tendencies, not rules (Jonauskaite et al., 2020).

In photography

A wedding photographer in Kerala thinks about the clothes and the culture before choosing a palette. A colour that feels festive in one community may feel different in another.

In cinematography

A film can use a colour that grows or fades through the story, so that the audience feels the change without being told.

[Lecture example slot: two frames of the same scene with warm and cool colour casts]

Cham tipChoose a colour for the message, the audience and the place, not only because it looks good.

Cham taskPick a film poster. Write down what each main colour says, then check with a friend from another background.

Check yourself: Do colours mean the same everywhere?

No. Some links are shared, but meaning depends on culture and context.

Next question ↓Back to contents ↑

How do photographers and cinematographers control colour?

Short answer. Colour is controlled at four points: in front of the camera, in the light, in the camera and after the shoot. Plan each point before you press record.

In front of the camera: choose the clothes, set and props. Colour that is not there cannot be graded in.
In the light: choose the lamp and the gel. The white balance guide explains the colour of light.
In the camera: choose the white balance and the picture style. See picture styles and camera calibration.
After the shoot: in Lightroom, Temp and Tint move the image blue to yellow and green to magenta. The Color Mixer changes hue, saturation and luminance for each colour range. Colour Grading adds colour to the shadows, midtones and highlights.
Convert a copy to black and white to judge the light and dark values without colour. See the black and white guide.

In photography

Shoot a portrait against a plain wall in a colour that sits opposite the skin on the wheel. Skin and wall then separate without extra light.

In cinematography

A cinematographer talks to the production designer early about the palette. A few chosen colours repeated through a film give it a clear look.

[Lecture example slot: one scene shot with a limited palette, and the same scene shot with no plan]

Cham tipFix colour at the earliest point you can. Every later step costs more time.

Cham taskPlan a one-minute scene with only three colours. Write the clothes, set and light for each.

Check yourself: At which four points can colour be controlled?

In front of the camera, in the light, in the camera and in post.

Go to the FAQ ↓Back to contents ↑

Questions beginners ask

What are the primary colours?

It depends on the medium. Artists use red, yellow and blue. Printers use cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Screens and cameras use red, green and blue.

What is the difference between RGB and CMYK?

RGB adds light and is used for screens and cameras. CMYK uses ink that absorbs light and is used for print.

What is the difference between hue and saturation?

Hue is the name of the colour, such as red or blue. Saturation is how pure or vivid that colour is.

What is a tint, a tone and a shade?

A tint is a colour with white added, a tone has grey added and a shade has black added.

Do colours really change how we feel?

They can, but the effect depends on culture and context. Treat colour meanings as tendencies, not rules.

Why does my print look different from my screen?

A screen mixes light in RGB and a printer mixes ink in CMYK, and the printer cannot reproduce every screen colour.

References

Adobe (n.d.) Using image modes and color tables. Photoshop Elements Help. helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/using/using-image-modes-color-tables.html (Accessed 31 October 2026).
Albers, J. (1963) Interaction of Color. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Birch, J. (2012) Worldwide prevalence of red-green color deficiency. Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 29(3), pp. 313-320.
Elliot, A.J. and Maier, M.A. (2014) Color psychology: effects of perceiving color on psychological functioning in humans. Annual Review of Psychology, 65, pp. 95-120.
Fairchild, M.D. (2013) Color Appearance Models. 3rd edn. Chichester: Wiley.
Goethe, J.W. von (1840) Theory of Colours. Translated by C.L. Eastlake. London: John Murray.
Hunt, R.W.G. and Pointer, M.R. (2011) Measuring Colour. 4th edn. Chichester: Wiley.
Itten, J. (1973) The Art of Color: The Subjective Experience and Objective Rationale of Color. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Jonauskaite, D. et al. (2020) Universal patterns in color-emotion associations are further shaped by linguistic and geographic proximity. Psychological Science, 31(10), pp. 1245-1260.
Newton, I. (1704) Opticks: or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. London: Smith and Walford.

How to cite this guide. Alex, A., & Joseph, A. (2026). Colour theory: A guide for photographers and cinematographers. Creative Hut Academy. https://creativehut.org/library/colour-theory/

© 2026 Creative Hut Academy. Written by Abin Alex and Anu Joseph. Drafted with AI assistance. Last updated 31 October 2026. To copy, republish, translate or adapt any part of it, including the diagrams, you need written permission. Ask through the contact page. The books, standards and data sheets listed above are sources, not copies. Found a mistake? Write to director@creativehut.org.

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