Home Forums The Learning Center Color Theory and Mixing Pigment with peak in yellow of the spectrum?

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  • #472233
    Googlies
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        Hi all.

        I’m looking for a pigment with a peak in the yellow part of the visible spectrum. I was hoping maybe someone super technical knowledge would know here, maybe?

        Handprint handily has the spectrums of a lot of pigments on their website. Just click the little rainbow icon by a color: https://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/watery.html

        From their spectrums, it looks like most yellow pigments reflect reflect a large band of light from red all the way to green for some.

        The closest I could find to having a ‘peak’ in the yellow is PY42: https://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/waterfs.html

        Maybe there’s a less common pigment that is like that? Thanks.

        #816913
        Patrick1
        Default

            Looking around at the spectral profiles, yellow seems to be the one color region where pigments don’t have a peak. If you do find any, I’d be interested too. Photography and theater lighting filters, otoh, do have some filters that are more narrowband/peaky than artist pigments.

            #816918
            savras
            Default

                I’m looking for a pigment with a peak in the yellow part of the visible spectrum.

                I’d like to know what would be the point of it. If I understand correctly, how reflectance curves work, then such pigment would work as a filter cutting out anything apart from yellow part of the spectrum.
                Thus resulting in either neutralized yellows/greens or something close to grey.

                #816915
                WFMartin
                Default

                    It has been estimated that roughly only 7% of the color, “yellow”, that we see emanating from everyday objects is actually Spectral Yellow (which would be represented by this “peak” to which you are referring). The other 93% of the color, Yellow, that we see is reflected Red, and Green light.

                    This is one reason that spectral emission curves prove to be rather meaningless, and useless for judging colors that occur in everyday situations, such as painting. For example, the color, Magenta, is represented by equal emissions (or reflectance) of both the Blue, and the Red portions of the spectrum. In fact, because those two colors occur at the opposite ends of the spectrum, there can’t possibly any such “peak” in the Magenta portion of the spectrum, simply because there is no single, “Magenta wavelength” in the natural spectrum. If you doubt this fact, merely Google “Spectral Magenta”, and you may be surprised to learn that there is no such thing.

                    If you wish to actually view a color that represents “spectral Yellow” in as pure a form as one can get, purchase a Kodak Wratten Filter #90, and take a look at it. True, spectral yellow is not a very pleasing color, at all, and is not a color that an artist would likely consider being a representative “Yellow”. It is sort a copper-y, bronze-y appearing color that one would not consider as being “Yellow” at all. However, just look at the spectral curve of this #90 filter, and you will discover that it is a quite accurate example of Spectral Yellow.

                    Again, this is another reason that spectral emission curves are not always a very logical way of expressing a color, unless one understands the more scientific facts of vision behind them. For example, if I were to be judging the “Yellow-ness” of a color, I’d be examining the spectral curve emissions of the Red, and Green colors, because it is THOSE that truly indicate the hue of the color, Yellow, that we will be witnessing.:)

                    wfmartin. My Blog "Creative Realism"...
                    https://williamfmartin.blogspot.com

                    #816914
                    Patrick1
                    Default

                        Folks – the original poster never asked about it being a ‘good’ yellow for painting or color mixing, so there is no reason to assume they are clueless about how spectral profiles translate to perceived color – especially after referencing one of the best color theory sites on the planet.

                        The question might’ve been asked merely out of curiosity, or to do some color experiment. Narrowband color filters have unusual mixing properties, maybe he/she was hoping something similar exists in artist pigments – which afaik doesn’t, at least for yellows. If the question is asking about yellows with a very gentle peak, a few yellows might do that, kinda sorta:

                        #816917

                        The simple reason for that is statistics.. what we call yellow is a very very narrow band .. so statistically it is a much smaller probability of finding a pigment centered on it other than anywhere else in the spectrum.

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                        #816916
                        Googlies
                        Default

                            Folks – the original poster never asked about it being a ‘good’ yellow for painting or color mixing, so there is no reason to assume they are clueless about how spectral profiles translate to perceived color – especially after referencing one of the best color theory sites on the planet.

                            The question might’ve been asked merely out of curiosity, or to do some color experiment. Narrowband color filters have unusual mixing properties, maybe he/she was hoping something similar exists in artist pigments – which afaik doesn’t, at least for yellows. If the question is asking about yellows with a [I]very gentle[/I] peak, a few yellows might do that, kinda sorta:

                            Thanks 🍻

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