What is the color scale? What are the three elements of color?

Color scale is the gradient of orderly gradation of colors. The essence of the color scale is the hue gradient formed by the continuous spectrum of red-orange-yellow-green-cyan-blue-violet, or the gradient between purple-blue-cyan-green-yellow-orange-red. Because its gradient is like a ladder, it is called a color scale. In essence, the spectrum is the color scale, and the color scale is the gradual various hues.

The number of color levels: The spectrum is a color band, which can be roughly divided into six basic colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Subdivided further, between these six colors (including between purple and red), there are six intermediate colors. This has become 12 kinds, namely red, red-orange, orange, yellow-orange, yellow, yellow-green, green, blue-green, blue, blue-violet, purple, and purple, which are called "twelve hues." If the secondary colors are divided between 12 colors, it becomes 24 colors. The color scale is continuously gradual, there are actually countless.

Regarding the application of color gradation: the gradation of color gradation provides the possibility for post-grading of digital images. Most computer application retouching software has the possibility of "color gradation", which is used to adjust the hue of the image.

Hue, one of the three elements of color, refers to the essential difference between color and color. In the spectrum, colored light of the same wavelength is monochromatic light (only red, green, and blue). Monochromatic light of different wavelengths can be mixed into inter-colored light (such as orange, yellow, cyan), and the dominant wavelength of the inter-colored light determines the hue.

Color brightness, one of the three elements of color, the degree of lightness and darkness of color. The amount of white in the color. There are four main factors for image color and brightness. 1. The amount of reflection. For the same light source, the color body surface reflectance is high, that is, the color light reflection is large, the color brightness is high, and vice versa. 2. Illumination. For the same color body, high light source illuminance results in high color body brightness, and vice versa. 3. Grayscale. A color with a high gray scale (a lot of gray) means a low brightness, and vice versa. 4. Inherent color. Under the same white light, the inherent color of the object is different and the brightness is different. The brightness of different inherent colors is from high to low: yellow→orange→green→red→cyan→blue→purple. Among the various colors, yellow has the highest lightness.

Color saturation, also known as purity, is one of the three elements of color. The purity of the color is the vivid purity of the color. The spectrum color is the purest, the most vivid, and the saturation is the highest. Non-spectral colors all contain different degrees of gray, and the saturation is lower than that of spectral colors. In other words, saturation is the degree of difference in achromaticity of a certain color and its same brightness. The lower the gray level of a color, the closer to the spectral color, the higher the color saturation; otherwise, the lower it is. Under the same light conditions, when the air is fresh, the color saturation is high; when the air is turbid, the color saturation is low.

For any color, when the brightness increases to the extreme, it becomes white, and when the brightness decreases to the extreme, it becomes black. When the brightness increases or decreases to make the color the most vivid, the color is called a saturated color. The light color and the color of nature are not pure, all contain different degrees of gray, only the spectral color is the purest. In photography practice, saturated color is a relative concept.