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14
Colour

How the eye sees colour

Colour vision is made possible by cones on the retina of the eye, which
respond to different colours. The cones are of three types sensitive to
certain bands of light – either green, red or blue. The three responses
combine so that, with normal vision, all other colours can be dis-
cerned. There is a wide variation in an individual’s receptor response
to different colours but many tests have established an average
response (see Figure 14.1).
Colour television adopts the same principle by using a prism
behind the lens to split the light from a scene into three separate
channels. Colour analysis in the camera will give the appropriate red,
green and blue signals according to the spectral energy distribution
of the colour being observed. A fourth signal, called the luminance
signal, is obtained by combining proportions of the red, green and
blue signals. It is this signal that allows compatibility with a mono-
chrome display. The amplitude of the luminance signal at any
moment is proportional to the brightness of the particular picture
element being scanned. Colour film negative uses a similar filter
technique to expose different layers of emulsion to the different col-
ours of the spectrum.
A TV colour signal is an electrical representation of the original
scene processed and reproduced on a TV display monitor. The fidelity
of the displayed colour picture to the original colours will depend on
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the analysis characteristics of the light splitting block and the linear
matrix of the video camera, which are designed and adjusted to be
displayed on the appropriate phosphor characteristics of the display
tube, all of which collectively take into account, and accurately repro-
duce the average human perceptual response to colour. In practice, the
available phosphor compounds that are employed in tube manufac-
ture determine the selection and handling of the television primary
colour signals needed to provide accurate perceptual response to a
displayed colour picture.
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 Colour
0.6
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0.5
0.4 Green
0.3 Red
0.2
0.1 Blue
0
-0.1
400 500 600 700
Wavelength (nanometres)
Figure 14.1 Thomas Young (1773–
1829) was one of the first people
to propose the three-colour theory
of perception. By mixing three
lights widely spaced along the
spectrum he demonstrated that he
could produce any colour (and
white) visible in the spectrum by a
mixture of three, but not less than
three, lights set to appropriate
intensities. The choice of suitable
wavelengths to achieve this is
quite wide and no unique set of
three wavelengths has been
established. The average three
colour sensitive cones in the eye
have the response curves
displayed here, and all spectral
colours are seen by a mixture of
signals from the three systems
Blue
Magenta Cyan
White
Red Yellow Green
Figure 14.2 Additive colour
system. Nearly the whole range of
colours can be produced by
adding together, in various
proportions, light sources of the
three primary wavelengths. This is
known as additive colour
matching. Some colours that the
eye can perceive plot outside the
triangle and can not be combined
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by the use of the three chosen
primaries unless the application of
‘negative’ light is employed in the
camera processing circuits. Given
that the tube phosphor and the
‘average’ perceptual response to
colour remains unchanged, the
fidelity of colour reproduction will
be determined by the design of
the circuits handling the mixture
of the three colour signals
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187
White balance
In colorimetry it is convenient to think of white being obtained from
equal amounts of red, green and blue light. This concept is continued
in colour cameras. When exposed to a white surface (neutral scene),
the three signals are matched to the green signal to give equal amounts
of red, green and blue. This is known as white balance. The actual red,
green and blue light emitted when white is displayed on a colour tube
are in the proportion of 30 per cent red lumens, 59 per cent green
lumens and 11 per cent blue lumens.
Although the eye adapts if the colour temperature illuminating a
white subject alters, there is no adaptation by the camera and the three
video amplifiers have to be adjusted to ensure they have unity output.
Because the colour temperature of different light sources and mixtures
of light sources varies, it is essential to select the correct filter and
white-balance the camera whenever you suspect a change has
occurred. When there is a change in the colour temperature of the
light illuminating a potential shot it is necessary to adjust the white
balance of the camera. The fidelity of colour reproduction is depen-
dent on the white-balance procedure. If required, the white balance
can be deliberately adjusted so that overall the pictures are warmed
up to a straw colour or cooled to a bluish tint. This customizing is
frequently irreversible and so more extreme colour effects should be
left to post-production where the depth and appearance of the image
can be assessed on Grade A monitors.
Colour correction
A fundamental problem with location work is dealing with a mixture
of light of different colour temperatures. If the light remains uncor-
rected, faces and subjects may have colour casts that look unnatural
and distracting. The two most common light sources on location are
daylight, which has a range of colour temperatures but averages
around 5600 K, and tungsten light, which is often produced by
lamps carried to the location that are approximately 3200 K.
Colour correction filters
There are two basic types of correction filter used when attempting to
combine mixed lighting of tungsten and daylight:
1. an orange filter, which converts daylight to tungsten and is most
often seen attached to windows for interior shots;
2. a blue filter, which converts tungsten to daylight and is often used
on tungsten lamps.
Any correction filter will reduce the amount of light it transmits and
therefore a balance must be struck between colour correction and
sufficient light for adequate exposure. A filter for full colour conver-
sion from daylight to tungsten will have a transmission of only 55 per
cent, which means nearly half of the available light is lost. A filter for
full colour correction from tungsten to daylight has an even smaller
 188 Picture Composition for Film and Television

transmission factor of 34 per cent – it cuts out nearly two-thirds of the

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possible light from a lamp. This is a more serious loss because whereas
daylight is usually more than adequate for a reasonable exposure,
reducing the light output of a lamp by blue filtering to match daylight
may leave an interior lit by blue filtered lamps short of adequate light.

Altering the colour balance

As well as colour correction filters on lens or lamp, both film and video
use filters to adjust colour response. These include filters that give an
overall tint to the shot and graduated (grads) filters, which help to
control bright skies by having a graduated neutral density from the top
to clear filter at the bottom – the graduation can be obtained as a hard
or a soft transition. There are also filters with a graduated tint to
colour skies or the top part of the frame. They are positioned in the
matte box for optimum effect but, once adjusted, the camera can rarely
be tilted or panned on shot without disclosing the filter position. There
are also skin tone warmers to improve close-ups of faces. This can also
be achieved electronically.

Post-production
Both film and video can achieve significant changes in the colour
appearance of images in post-production. Video has a huge range of
post-production effects available. Film production can grade a nega-
tive or a print in processing or when dubbed to video for electronic
post production.

Colour as subject

Twentieth-century painting has often employed colour as the primary

means of visual communication. In their relationship within a frame,
colours provide their own kind of balance, contrast, rhythm, structure,
texture and depth, independent of any recognizable figurative subject
that may be defined in terms of line or tone. Colour not only has a
profound influence on composition, in many forms of image making it
is the subject of the composition.
The importance of colour to express emotional states or to create
sensations of movement and space has not always been recognized. Up
to the early Renaissance period, colour was considered by many art
patrons as an embellishment to a painting to be selected from a list of
expensive pigments. Colour was added as a beautifying agent and
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priced accordingly. For many years, painters blocked in the main

structure of a painting primarily in line and tone. Colour was used
to supplement the linear and tonal expression of ideas. Although
painters began to appreciate the expressive use of colour, the scientific
investigation into colour theory by Goethe, Helmholtz, Chevreul and
others in the nineteenth century provided the stimulus to reinforce or
confirm many painter’s intuitive understanding of the effects of colour.
Eventually, the optical sensations of colour were fascinating enough to
be able to provide the very subject matter of a picture.
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 Colour 189

Monochrome
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Both film and TV began as a black and white medium. In fact, film
began with no colour, no sound and with very little if any camera
movement. The ability to record infinite detail mechanically and the
novelty of its ‘realism’ compensated the photographic image for its
lack of colour. Television, by adding the ability to witness an event as
it occurred, wherever it occurred, could also compensate for the
absence of colour.

The legacy of monochrome television

The gradual transition in the 1960s to colour broadcasting and the
gradual replacement of black and white receivers with near universal
colour reception left behind one legacy of monochrome television.
Nearly all broadcast television cameras are fitted, as standard, with
monochrome viewfinders. There are exceptions, but the majority of
cameras in daily use up to, and including the introduction of high-
definition equipment, use monochrome viewfinders to acquire the
basic material for colour television.
Camera manufacturers explain this paradox as their inability, so far,
to provide a 1.500 monocular colour viewfinder with sufficient resolu-
tion, added to their claim that the cost of doing so would be prohibi-
tive. Despite the vast technological changes that have occurred with
the development of television cameras in the last 50 years, the one
consistent technique that has remained unchanged has been the need
for cameramen to use a monochrome viewfinder even when composing
colour pictures.
The spread of the DV camera into broadcasting has brought with it
the colour liquid crystal display (LCD) viewfinder, which is often fitted
as standard. With these viewfinders, colour can now be seen as integral
to the composition of the shot instead of the need for a mental note to
remind oneself to take colour into consideration when framing up
using a monochrome viewfinder.
Optical viewfinders on film cameras have always provided the
opportunity to check the influence of colour on the shot.

Problems associated with monochrome viewfinders

One of the most common misconceptions with this situation is that
there is no need for a colour viewfinder except where colour differen-
tiation is necessary, for example sports coverage, snooker, etc. The
camera manufacturers believe that the viewfinder is simply there to
be used for focus and what they term ‘the adjustment of the picture
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angle’.
The fact that colour plays a significant part in picture composition is
either ignored or conveniently becomes the responsibility of other
technicians in the television production chain. After 30 years of transi-
tion from monochrome to colour, cameramen remain the last group of
black-and-white viewers.
The result of framing a composition in monochrome often results in
the over-reliance on tone, mass and linear design as the main ingredi-
ent of the composition. If a colour monitor is accessible, then adjust-
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 190 Picture Composition for Film and Television

ment can be made for the colour component of the shot but only too
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often, the frame of reference for the composition is the monochrome

viewfinder or a small portable low quality colour monitor. Colours of
similar brightness such as red and the darker shades of green merge
and may be indistinguishable in the monochrome viewfinder and yet,
as separate hues, they exercise a strong influence on the composition
(see Plates 4 and 5). Saturated red and blue appear much darker in a
monochrome viewfinder than their brightness value in colour. A small
saturated colour against a complementary background has a much
greater impact in colour than its viewfinder reproduction.
To some extent monochrome pictures are more abstract than colour
and the effect of the image is different from our normal colour percep-
tion. The image can be more streamlined if only tone and line are
considered as compositional elements. Many years ago, film camera-
men, after years of black-and-white photography, had difficulty in
adjusting to the complexity of colour composition compared with
the simplicity and control of monochrome. When using orthocromatic
black and white film stock, they would often use a pan glass when
converting to panchromatic film to assess how the colour tones would
reproduce in monochrome. Some still photographers prefer to avoid
colour in order to emphasize the form and shape of an image.
Using a monochrome viewfinder, video operators have the reverse
problem. They must assess how a monochrome viewfinder image is
converting a colour image and if there are colour components in the
image unseen in colour in the viewfinder that will disrupt a mono-
chrome composition.
It is possible to demonstrate that a video image has been composed
in monochrome by switching out the colour on the receiver. It is
surprising how much strength is reintroduced into a shot that was
originally composed in black and white when the colour content is
removed. The reverse can also be seen when a shot could have been
improved if a colour viewfinder had been available in order to actively
use colour in the composition in addition to line and tone.
A flat lit scene viewed in black and white gives the impression of
lack of contrast and punch whereas the same scene in colour may be
much more acceptable than the monochrome rendering suggests. A
shot lit with predominantly red light has very little contrast and low
modulation when viewed through a monochrome viewfinder. This
often provokes an unnecessary struggle by the cameraman using a
monochrome viewfinder to provide dynamic compositions using
mass and line, which is quite unnecessary when the same shot is viewed
in colour (see Plates 6 and 7).
Contrasty lighting may provide compositions with more impact
whereas overcast light may give flat black-and-white pictures,
although the colour content may help to separate subject material.
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In a monochrome viewfinder the lack of contrast dilutes the visual

strength and without strong light/dark relationships the composition
may often appear to be lacking balance or emphasis. If reliance is
placed on monochrome viewfinder compositions, some colour com-
binations may have a striking dissimilarity to the balanced black-and-
white compatible image.
Composing with a monochrome viewfinder results in emphasizing
contrast, mass and usually the convergence of lines. Colour becomes
simply the accidental effect of individual objects within the frame

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 Colour 191

rather than the conscious grouping and locating of colour within the
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frame. The weight of colour elements are not used to balance the
composition and can frequently unbalance the considered mono-
chrome composition of tone and line.

Colour and composition

The faithful reproduction of colour requires techniques to ensure that

the specific colours of a scene are reproduced accurately and colour
continuity requires that the same colours are identically reproduced in
succeeding shots. This is often a basic requirement in most types of
camerawork but colour as an emotional influence in establishing
atmosphere or in structuring a composition, also plays a vital role in
visual communication.
Terms used to describe colour can sometimes lead to confusion. In
this account:

* hue refers to the dominant wavelength – the colour we see;

* value is a measurement of reflectivity on a scale of 1–10;
* saturation is the purity of the colour.

The perceived hue of any coloured object is likely to vary depending

on the colour of its background and the colour temperature of the
light illuminating it. Staging someone in a yellow jacket against green
foliage will produce a different contrast relationship to staging the
same person against a blue sky (see Plates 2 and 3).
There appears to be a reduction in the perception of ‘colourfulness’
under a dull overcast sky. The muted effect on colour under diffused
light can often allow colours to blend and provide a softer pastel
relationship and a satisfactory picture, whereas the lack of contrast
may produce flat, drab monochrome images.
Sunlight raises the general level of illumination and provides a direc-
tional light that, reflected off coloured objects, tends to increase the
‘colourfulness’ of a scene compared with the diffuse light of an over-
cast sky. A proportion of directional light is reflected as white specular
from glossy surfaces and increases the impact of colour. The hard
modelling and greater contrast make the scene look more ‘alive’.
The perceptual impact of a coloured object is not consistent but is
modified by the quality of the light illuminating it, by reflection, shad-
ow and by its relationship with surrounding colours.

Balancing a composition with colour

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Balance in a composition depends on the distribution of visual weight.

Mass, relative brightness, line and the psychological importance of a
visual element can all be structured to provide visual unity in an image
and to provide a route for the eye to travel in order to emphasize the
most important element. Colour can be used to balance and to unify
an image in many ways (see Plate 7).
An out-of-focus single hued object within the frame (e.g., red), often
exerts a strong influence in the composition and may distract attention
from the main subject.
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 192 Picture Composition for Film and Television

Light/dark relationships
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As we have seen, the eye is attracted to the lightest part of an image or

that part of the image which has the greatest contrast and if colour is
reproduced as a grey scale, yellow, after white, is the brightest colour.
Depending on their backgrounds, a small area of yellow, for example,
will carry more visual weight than a small area of blue. When balan-
cing out a composition attention should be paid to the relative bright-
ness of colour and its location within the frame.

Cold/warm contrast
Many colours have a hot or a cold feel to them. Red is considered hot
and blue is thought of as cold. People disagree about how hot or how
cold a particular colour may be but the general perceptual consensus is
that hot colours advance and cold colours recede. This has a composi-
tional significance of colour as a depth indicator and affects the con-
trol of the principal subject. It will take other strong design elements
within a shot to force a foreground blue object to exist in space in front
of a red object.
The eye naturally sees red as closer than blue unless the brightness,
shape, chroma value and background of the blue is so arranged that in
context it becomes more dominant than a desaturated, low brightness
red. Colour effects are relative and no one set of guidelines will hold
true for all colour relationships. For example, the intensity of a hot
colour can be emphasized by surrounding it by cool colours. The
intensity of the contrast will affect balance and to what part of the
frame the eye is attracted.
Strong prolonged stimulation of one colour has the effect of
decreasing the sensitivity to that colour but sensitivity to its comple-
mentary is enhanced. Looking at a saturated red, for example, for
some time and then shifting the gaze to a grey area will provoke a
sensation of blue-green. This effect of successive contrast is a result of
a process of adaptation by the cones and rods in the eye. Intercutting
with shots containing strong saturated primaries may give rise to
‘after’ images of complementary colours (see Plate 1).

Colour symbolism

There have been a number of theories based on general colour asso-

ciation concerning the symbolism of colour. Hollywood cameraman
Villorio Storaro used his own colour theory in shooting ‘The Last
Emperor’ (1987), where he equated different colours with different
moods or atmospheres. The shots at the beginning of the Forbidden
applicable copyright law.

City and the family were predominantly orange. He used yellow for
personal growth of the young emperor and the realization of personal
identity. Yellow was also the royal colour of the Chinese. Yellow
dissolved to green with the arrival of the tutor – the arrival of knowl-
edge.
Nestor Almendros used the ‘magic hour’, that moment of the day
when the sun has left the sky and the earth and the sky are bathed in a
golden light. There were barely 25 minutes each day of this quality of
light to shoot the film ‘Days of Heaven’ (1978) but it was considered
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 Colour 193

that the contribution of the emotional quality of the light was worth
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the extra budget required.

Summary

Balance in a composition depends on the distribution of visual weight.

Colour can be used to balance and to unify an image in many ways.
If the weight of colour elements is ignored (or unseen), it can fre-
quently unbalance the considered monochrome composition of tone
and line.
A composition framed in monochrome may result in the over-reli-
ance on tone, mass and linear design as the main ingredients of the
composition.
Colour not only has a profound influence on composition, in many
forms of image making, it is often the subject of the composition.
The perceptual impact of a coloured object is not consistent but is
modified by the quality of the light illuminating it, by reflection, shad-
ow and by its relationship with surrounding colours.
The individual response to colour may be a product of fashion and
culture, or it may be an intrinsic part of the act of perception.
applicable copyright law.

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