Is Color In The Object Or The Light?
An examination of how color perception works. Is the color in the object or the light?
In this post 9 sections
Introduction#
Why are apples red or the sky blue? What causes things to have their specific colors? Three answers appear often:
- Color is in the object.
- Color is an aspect of light.
- Color comes from the way light interacts with the visual system.
Isaac Newton studied this question in the seventeenth century. He passed white light through a prism, and it split into separate rays. He concluded that light contains color. Newton believed particles made up light, with each color originating from particles of a specific size. His ideas were influential, although modern physics does not support them. We shall return to this experiment shortly.
Is Color in the Light?#
Many people treat color as a feature of light. They speak of “red” light or “blue” light. This implies that color is a property of light. The facts do not support this. Light has properties like wavelength, frequency, and energy. None of these include color.
“Blue wavelengths” refers to electromagnetic waves in a certain range. Light in that range produces the experience of blue because of how the visual system responds. The color is not in the light.
You can study light and still never find color inside it. One can isolate a photon and measure its properties. You will not find “blueness” or “redness.” Physics has a detailed picture of photons, yet it does not treat color as one of their properties.
Color comes from the interaction between light and the eye. Light provides a stimulus. The eye responds. The brain produces the experience.
Is Color in the Object?#
Many thinkers once claimed objects held their colors. They said apples contain redness, and the sky contains blueness. Studies show no such features. No object contains color. An object has many properties, but none of them is color.
People speak as if objects hold color. They say an apple has redness. You can examine an apple or the sky and never find color in either. Color is not in the object.
Color is a mode of perception. The object reflects certain wavelengths. Light hits the eye, and the eye reacts. The eye responds to those wavelengths, and you perceive the colors.
Light, Wavelength, and Vision#
The eye responds to light that reaches the retina. Light behaves like a wave. It has a wavelength. The human eye responds to wavelengths between about 380 and 700 nanometers. Light in this range produces visual sensations. Light outside this range reaches the eye, yet the eye does not respond.
Electromagnetic radiation spans many wavelengths. Only a small part is visible. Different wavelengths produce different color sensations. The retina and brain create these sensations when they respond to incoming light.
Color comes from the interaction between the eye and light. The object absorbs some wavelengths and reflects others. The eye responds to the reflected wavelengths. Different wavelengths cause different colors to be perceived.
The apple aborbs most wavelengths of light, and reflect red wavelengths.
Reflective Properties of Objects#
Color perception depends on how an object reflects light. An apple absorbs most wavelengths and reflects those between 625 and 740 nanometers. These reflected wavelengths produce the sensation of red.
Strawberries appear red because they reflect specific wavelengths. They do not contain redness. They reflect light in a way that triggers the perception of red. The object’s reflective behavior decides which wavelengths reach the eye. The eye reads those wavelengths and produces the color experience.
The nature of an object determines which wavelengths of light it absorbs and which it reflects. An object’s nature determines which wavelengths of light it reflects. This means that observers will perceive certain colors, while they will not perceive most others.
Perceiving the Object#
We see objects through the light they reflect. The light carries information about the object. The eye reads that information and produces the perception.
We can judge distance by how light reaches the eye. Known size, apparent size, and parallax give simple cues. Once you know the distance, you can estimate the size. We learn about objects by studying the light they reflect. The eye reads this light and creates the perception. Color is part of this process.
Objectivity#
Color perception arises from physical interactions. An apple reflects certain wavelengths because of its structure. Under normal conditions, it reflects the same wavelengths.
Those with normal vision perceive the same colors. When observing an apple, the colorblind perceive shades of gray and black, instead of red or green. The apple stays the same. The light stays the same. However, that person’s visual system works differently.
The nature of the apple nor the light changed. The difference comes from the eyes. Color depends on the visual system. The eye and brain create the experience. Colorblind visual systems produce different sensations.
Does that make your visual system nonobjective? No. If you perceive color, your visual system works according to its nature. If you are colorblind, your visual system has a different nature, but it is acting according to its nature. In both cases, you perceive what the nature of your visual system perceives.
It is not a subjective experience. Both visual systems act according to their nature. That nature is not subject to subjective factors. The nature of your visual system is an objective fact determined by its nature and is not subjective.
On the left is how a normal person might perceive an apple, and on the right how a colorblind person might.
The Prism Experiment Reconsidered#
Newton’s prism experiment shows that white light contains many wavelengths. Each wavelength produces a different color experience. Colorblind observers do not see these colors. They see shades of gray.
Color is not a property of light. Light delivers wavelengths, and all observers receive the same wavelengths. Colorblind observers receive the same wavelengths. Yet, their vision perceives blacks, grays, lacking the colors others observe. Even though they are interacting with exactly the same light as everyone else. The light stays the same; the perception changes. This shows that color comes from the visual system, not from the light.
Conclusion#
Objects reflect certain wavelengths. Light carries those wavelengths to the eye. The eye and brain create the color you see. Color arises from the interaction between the visual system and light of particular wavelengths, and those wavelengths depend on the physical nature of the object.
Other senses follow the same pattern. Hearing, taste, and smell come from external signals acting on sensory organs. Each sense produces its own type of experience. The sensations of color, smell, and sound are not properties of objects, air, light, or waves. They result from how light, sound, and airborne particles interact with sensory systems.
Color resides neither within the object nor in light. It is in how light from objects interacts with the eye and brain. Color results from the interaction of light, the eye, and the brain. It is a mode of perception. It is a byproduct of how our sensory organs interact with light and not an inherent property of objects or light.
Also published on Substack.
Read this online: https://edscriver.com/blog/is-color-in-the-object-or-the-light/
