The task was to get an achromatic image and colourized it using Photoshop. I selected a high quality image of Marilyn Monroe. To do this I split the image into sections, a section for skin, a section for the dress, a section for hair and so on. These sections where selections made using the quick selection tool and refine edge. I used adjust layers and picked hue and saturation and adjusted the colour on overlay till it looked good and used the cloning tool to adjust imperfections.

Swatches

Swatches 

Swatches are a convenient and useful tool found in all editing software. They contain samples of pre saved images. Standards if you will. It is much like a digital palette. You can download various different colours and create custom ones also. It is all very intuitive and useful.

Different swatches are saved to your swatch library. Very useful as you can save multiple colours, shades, patterns even and name them for different projects.They are very much the same concept as Pantones just digital and more personalized. When used properly they can be very effective time savers and sources to experiment and test different colour compositions.

Emotion & Colour

This is 'light painter' by Tang Yau Hoong created using Photoshop and Illustrator. The piece is another example of how colour is enough to make a person feel something. The colour blue is dominant in the poster. This is because the artist is trying to convey a tranquil and calm atmosphere. It is very honest and open. The black silhouette of the man figure feels very lonely drowning in the blue colour. The mix of blue and black gives a feeling of sadness or depression. I feel that is what the intention was, as the little yellow being painted by the man signifies optimism. In fact the colour yellow, as pale as this one may be, still symbolizes imagination and hope.

This is a film poster entitled 'Red Army' by Boca. The strong colours caught my eye and gave off very strong feelings. The strong red colours are synonymous with Soviet Russia and give off a powerful and aggressive tone. Red is perceived as Power, aggression, strength, danger, war, violence. All these emotions and concepts spring to mind RED, for most. That description fits the posters team perfectly as it engulfs the viewer in the subject. The formidable, audacious adversary that is the Soviet Russian hokey team. The half black background acts as an emphasis on the fear the soviet russian team instilled in their opponents. Black is a colour that is perceived as fearful, evil, unknowing, remorse and others. So as we can see Colour play a crucial part in the overall team of the poster.
That is why as artists we should be aware of Colour and use it to help further our message to the viewer.

Here are some other Colours are perceived;

Pink; love, romance, caring, tenderness, acceptance.
Orange; energy, balance, enthusiasm, demanding, vibrant.
white; purity, simplicity, cleanness, peace.
Gray; secure, reliable, science, solid, secure, 
Lavender, femininity, elegance and grace.
yellow; optimism, joy, happiness, hazard, imagination.

Perception 2

As we have seen colour can be perceived differently depending on the composition of colours. Color also carries a meaning. This is a product of different cultures and societies for example; Americans find red white and blue (in unisons) to symbolize patriotism, as their flag is made up of those 3 colour.

Various colours carry different emotions and messages effectively and discreetly. Studies suggest that colour triggers our natural senses better than any other elements, some being shapes and symbols. Artists are aware of this and use colour to attract certain demographics and create a connection.

This is not a new discovery but has been know for a while now. Impressionism consisted of this technique, as the style was about conveying emotions. Bellow is a painting by Monet called 'Grainstack'. In said painting you can clearly see the importance of colour. The light, luminous effect created by the multiple shades of yellow gives of a very strong sense of a sunrise or sunset. It gives me a feeling of relief and optimism of what is to come. The yellow and reddish tones give a sense of warmth, as if it was real sunlight, over the pale blue tones.

In graphic design colour carries the same emotions and messages. That is why brands have moved closer to the use of colour, to grab the viewers attention and subside in their memory. Persuasion is the word.

The goal is to carry a personality with the brand through colour. That personality is what connects with corresponding individuals. For example the infamous Apple logo.

This particular Apple logos colour fits the brands personality perfectly. The colour Grey evokes balance, innovation, science and of course simplicity. That in my opinion is a fitting description for Apples future goals and history. This mature looking logo reflects a different personality when the colour is changed...

Above is another one of apples previous logos. This time it is abundant in colour. It gives off a different message than the previous logo. The multiple rainbow colours give off a playful and joyful personality. Yet innovative just the same as it still gives a message of forward thinking and unity.

It must always be kept in mind that it's not necessarily the colour itself that conveys these feelings and messages but rather the cultural perception individuals have of these colours.

Bellow is an infographic i found that sums up most of the well known brand logos and their corresponding colour emotions.

Perception 1

Colour is an interesting subject as we can't be certain about it. When you look at it scientifically colour is what our brains depict when we look around and light enters the colour receptors (cones) in our eyes.

Light can be reflected. For example; we see an apple red because it absorbs most of the incoming additive light (RGB) that hits it and reflects only the red light. Which is what our eyes pick up.
Or Emitted from a source and entering the eye.

Although, we must take into consideration that colour is not solely dependent on pigmentation but also dependent on the brightness of ambient light. Surrounding colours can also alter our perception of a colour.

Bellow are 2 squares of the same colour, both with different backgrounds. They may be the same colour but at first glance they seam to be of different shades. The square on the right looks to be lighter than the square on the left, yet they are the same. This is because a light tone looks lighter against a dark background than against a pale one.

This is another example i created. This time the two small squares are not of the same tone. Yet they seem to be, as the darker right square seems to be lighter due to the darker background.

It is interesting how colour can be easily confused, or more fittingly, confuse the brain. Bellow is a more complex illusion. what it seams to be, to the naked eye, are two different colour chest pieces surronded by fog.

Yet the two 'different coloured' chest pieces are one in the same. The confusion of black, white and grey surrounding and running through the chest pieces silhouette confuses the brain. It is a more complex example of the same above example i had created. 

ICC Profile

ICC Profiles are a tool to make the most out of our work by using colour efficiently and knowledgeably. The International Color Consortium (ICC) have standardized sets of data that characterizes a colour from input or output device, or a colour space.

These profiles are necessary as they can show us the final image outcome on our screen and compare between different profiles. With out knowing we can easily and instantaneously lose colour quality from photographs we import, and the quality lost can be drastic. Not to mention time and money wasted.

To further explain what ICC profiles are, they can give information of the pixels within digital photographic files. Information such as; the very darkest to the very lightest tones the file can hold.
The Gamut (range of colours) that the file is capable of showing. The relationship between these colours and tones as well as the distribution. All by 3 dimensionalizing colour information. The bellow images shows two 3D Gamuts (the range of potential colour a system can produce). The smaller one represents the standard sRGB profile and the larger transparent one represents the adobe RGB profile. (note- transparent as it is not selected).

Before comparing first notice the shape of these spectrums of colour. At each corner we see the point of red, green and blue. We can clearly see the colours fade into each other by becoming different tones. The 3D area is representative of the information of colour the profile has. So what if there is more information? Then of course the 3D area becomes larger and therefor represents even more colour. The Adobe RGB is a much richer profile as can be seen when compared (top photo). When the Adobe RGB is selected you can see the full colour of information is has, as we can see bellow. Profiles can also describe the capabilities of monitors, scanners, cammeras and also printers. aswell as any device that captures, displays or outputs colour can be described by a profile.

The bellow image shows a 2D Gamut representing and comparing other ICC profiles. The largest shape of colour represents the colour the human eye can see. The various coloured triangles represent the corresponding (by colour) profiles.

Colour Systems

Colour systems are methods in which colour is produced.
Additive  & Subtractive (also known as Reflective) are the 2 colour systems.

The Additive colour system is based on 3 colours. RED, GREEN & BLUE also referred to as RGB. these are the prime colours of this system instead of the primary colours we are used to (red, yellow, blue).

The concept here is simple. Anything that emits light such as the sun or a bulb is an additive colour. Red, green and blue are not the only colours that this system is capable of. Here different colours are created by a mixture of different wavelengths of light. Hues can be created by adding or decreasing light. The more light you add the brighter the colour, whereas the less light you add, the darker the colour. The negative space is apparent as the colour black as there is an absence of colour. The colour white on the other hand is a combination of colours.

Subtractive or Reflective colour is the complete opposite of additive. This system works on the basis of reflecting light rather than emitting it. Here the prime colours are Cyan, Magenta, Yellow referred to as CMY.

Colour is Determined by the way a certain pigment reflects different wavelengths of light as it makes contact and reflects into the human eye. In this system the negative or absence of colour is represented by the colour white, while black is the mixture of colour. Although it must be kept in mind that this is an imperfect system as light is not emitted it is reflected off the pigment which does not fully absorb light. Taking this into consideration a fourth pigment is used to compensate. This is called Key, and the famous CMYK was born. Key is a black pigment which is required as without it we would not be able to render the colour black properly and accurately.

The Colour Wheel

To begin exploring Colour which is one of the formal elements in design. We must look at the very foundations of colour theory, which date back to as far as the 15th century.

                                                                   The Colour wheel

Here we can see that there is a logical formation or order of hues of colour. As your eyes follow the different colours, from any direction, it is noticeable that the next colour is relative to the previous one. What i mean by this is that every colour is derived from another by using different formulations of primary colours, being Yellow, Red & Blue.

Though these primary colours create other colours, they can not be created by any other colour.

From the primary colours we get the secondary - Green, Orange & Purple.

When primary and secondary colours are mixed then tertiary colours are created such as Red-Violet or Yellow-Orange.

The amount of colours are honestly endless as you can constantly change the hue of any colour in the tiniest and still the change will be recognizable to the human eye.