Object placed beyond c

Object at c

Object placed between c and f

Object placed between f and p

1. Four experiments with diagrams mentioning the properties of

light
1.

1.

Create or find an image of the color spectrum and print it on a heavy card
stock.

2.

In a well-lit room, or outside on a sunny day, set up the camera 3 to 5

away, pointing to the color spectrum image. Use a tripod.

3.

Set the camera output to black & white and place in manual mode.

4.

Take a photo of the color spectrum. Record the aperture and shutter
speeds used. The control will be the image taken without a filter. You should use
the same settings when shooting with the filters.

5.

Place a color filter on the lens. To make a color filter use a color
transparency sheet and place it in front of the lens. You an also cut the
transparency to the size of the lens casing and secure with tape.

2.

1.

Take a photo of the color spectrum keeping the field of view and camera
settings the same as the control photo. Record which filter is used for each shot
using the exposure number.

2.

Repeat for each of color filter.

3.

View the images on screen. Did any look too dark or too light?

4.

Adjust the shutter speed and aperture settings and repeat step 6.
Photograph at least 3 sets using a different setting each time. Record all your
settings according to exposure number(s).

5.
6.

View your images on a computer.

What are the differences between the control and filtered images? What
happens to each color on the image when its own color is used as a filter?
3.

White light is made of all the colors of the rainbow. How do we know? Because a prism splits the
white light into its component colors (see Figure 1).
So, what do you think causes a

rainbow? Well, raindrops in the air act like tiny prisms. Light enters the raindrop, reflects off the
side and then exits the drop. During this process, the light is broken into a spectrum, just like it is
in a triangular glass prism.
So, what makes a red car appear red and a blue car appear blue? Objects create color by
subtracting or absorbing certain wavelengths of color while reflecting other wavelengths back to
the viewer. This phenomenon is called subtractive color (see Figure 2). So back to the red car, the
car really has no color; it reflects the wavelengths of white light that cause us to see red and
absorbs most of the other wavelengths, giving us the visual sensation of red.
The subtractive color system uses colorants and reflected light. You start with an object that
reflects light and use colorants, such as dyes or pigments, to subtract portions of the white light
that is shining on the object. The primary colors are cyan, magenta and yellow.

How do monitors and TVs display color? These produce color based on the additive color system,
which involves light emitted directly from a source before an object reflects light. Think about it
this way, you can watch TV or play on a computer without a light on in your room and still see
color, but you need a light on in your room to see color in photographs on your wall. A TV screen
or computer monitor creates color using the primary colors of light: red, blue and green. From
these three colors a wide range of colors can be produced. When you turn on your TV or
computer monitor, thousands of red, green and blue phosphor dots make up the images you see.
The phosphor dots emit light when activated electronically. The combination of different
intensities of these three colors produces all the colors on a video monitor. We cannot see the
dots individually because of how close they are to one another.

THE END