The More Behind a Swatch of ColorMisa MarquezAward: Top 100
School: redlands high school The same three smears of paint (red, green, and blue) are displayed with four different types of lighting projected on them, yet why does the color they exhibit vary under each light? This is primarily due to each of the pigments absorbing and reflecting different wavelengths of light except their own, basically bouncing off their own color and returning it to the viewer's eyes. Under the red light, the red pigment is able to reflect its own color, unlike the green and blue pigments which are unable to reflect red and can instead only absorb it. Since only red wavelengths are projected on the blue and green pigments, and they are not provided with either green or blue wavelengths to reflect, they result in a darkish color close to black. The same process can be said for the three pigments under blue or green light, with blue pigment reflecting the blue light or with the green pigment reflecting the green light, while the others reflect a dark neutral color. However in the upper right photo, all three pigments are able to be expressed under white light. The white light spectrum is different since it contains all of the colors, as can be seen through some of the projecting rays of light. Since white light is made up of all of the wavelengths of color, each pigment absorbs every wavelength color but their own which they instead reflect, also known as color 'subtraction'. 
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