Module 3A: Color Theory

The Color Wheel

A color wheel is a simple representation of primary and secondary and tertiary colors for any given color space. Not to be confused with the red, blue, and yellow color wheel you learned about in elementary school. Photographers mostly concern themselves with the color wheel for the RGB color space because these are the three additive colors of white light.

 

The RGB Color Wheel

On the RGB color wheel, Red, Green and Blue are the primary colors. These colors are represented by the numerical value in an RGB color space as follows:

 

                R      G    B

Red:       255   0      0  

Green:     0   255    0   

Blue:        0     0    255  

 

 

Secondary Colors

In an RGB color space, the secondary colors are Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow. These colors are created when equal amounts of the neighboring colors are blended.