What Is Color?
What is color? Physics explains it as the reflected light, where different light waves have different wave lengths, and the wave length is what defines how we see color. Therefore, there are two main components to recognizing a color: light, of course, and the other one - the person observing the light. More components can be identified, but we will just stop at these factors for right now. The light is necessary in order for everything on this plane to exist. Natural light comes from the sun, it has the potential of fueling our vehicles and heating systems he sun has the potential of fueling all our heating systems and allows plants to produce oxygen we breathe. Sunlight is not a constant. We will see the same objects differently through different exposure to light at different times of the day, at different locations, or just depending on the direction of the light. A light-colored wall may seem to have a hint of blue to it at noon, but the same wall will look fire-red at sunset. Two people observing it at different times would describe it as different colors. So, due to light not being a constant, it is hard to say that color is a constant and strictly defines a quality of an object.
The same yellow glasses photographed at different time of the day either filter the light and color the white desk into the color of their lenses, or reflect the light and "project" the surrounding objects (which in their turn reflect and project light) from the surface of their lenses. Photo by Ksenia Nation
Not only the change in time signifies the difference in impressions of the same wall’s color the two people perceived, but the observers’ physiology also plays an important role. Each person is unique, and therefore has very unique eyes. The size of the eyeballs, the distance between them, and the quality of eyesight – all of these can make a difference in seeing an object. The light that bounces off the inside of an eyeball gets reinterpreted by a human brain – and that’s where the main color difference occurs. No two brains are the same, no two thought identical, and just like that, no two colors witnessed can be described as the same color. There are a few forms of color blindness, the conditions in which the brain doesn’t interpret all colors equally, but even a person without color blindness can sometimes get confused about what they see. Many hues form at light wave lengths between the major easily identified colors. “What is that car down there? Is it turquoise? Teal? Maybe kind of blue with a hint of green to it? Would you call it green?” – a few people can describe the same color as blue or green, and neither of them would be wrong. If you think about it, can you be sure what you always thought was “red” had that color? What if everybody has a completely set of hues in their mind?
So what exactly is color? A mental image of a memory of a light reflected from a surface under a certain angle, observed by an individual at a certain time. Think about it: you can see color just the way you want to. What your brain interprets is your own personal perspective of what is really around you. Everything people enjoy is either magnified or diminished by their memory of the matter. If a fisherman catches a fish, chances are the fish is going to get “bigger” every time the fisherman tells the story about the fish. If someone hurt you, the more you think about it the stronger the pain. Same rule applies for colors. After going on a great vacation and staying in a yellow house during it, seeing a similar hue of yellow may subconsciously remind you of that wonderful time. Just like that a color becomes a person’s favorite, and the brain will start searching for it in familiar objects. Every thought and every place has a color by association, but it’s up to an individual to create those links. Just as easy, if you set your mind to it, you can break those links by realizing how made up they were. If a sad event left a negative impression of a color, it doesn’t mean the same color couldn’t become pleasant in a different chain of events.
Maybe there is no such thing as color – just the light and its reflection as it is seen bouncing of different textures, being absorbed or reflected, creating a mood or being created by it. Maybe we only think it exists because somebody else told us so. Either way, if you believe in it – it is worth investigating.
