Perceptions of Colors in Projected and Televised Pictures

D. L. Macadam

Many color photographs are taken in daylight and projected with tungsten lamps. On the other hand, commercial motion pictures made with tungsten studio lamps are almost always projected with arcs that resemble daylight. Color-television receivers produce “white” of daylight quality or even bluer, although most of the scenes televised are tungsten-lighted. Hence the question: “How should a color in one quality of illumination be reproduced for viewing with some other quality?” An investigation undertaken to answer this question will be described, and the results will be discussed. — The simple answer suggested by Von Kries's law of coefficients appears to be only a first approximation. Closer analysis of the behavior of the eye seems to indicate that human color vision is served by at least four, and probably by five or even six, different photosensitive processes, having different spectral sensitivities and different degrees of adaptation to various qualities of illumination. — These findings do not call into question the trichromatic character of color perception, on which color photography and color television are based. Apparently the visual nervous system provides only three channels, capable of handling only three independent responses. But each of these responses appears to be stimulated by a combination of two or more photosensitive processes in the eye.

Print ISSN
Published
1956-09
Content type
Original Research
DOI
10.5594/J11287