black is as much a color as white. absence of color could be said for both..hence if white is considered a color then so is black.
No. White is different.
Within art, both are not colours.
However, within the light spectrum white technically IS a colour. White is a result of all the colours combining. Black is when there is no light. If I go any deeper explaining that I'll end up mind-ninja'd again over the fact that black is devoid of light and how colours really work and-and-and *brain short-circuits*
Who said light must be present to define a colour? I can't find anything about that
Well, consider this. If there is no light, everything is black. Even if you know the objects are a certain colour in the light, it doesn't change that absence of light makes them black.
Ergo, light is required for there to be colour.
But when light is shining on everything and still some objects show as black, is this an absence of light? I don't think so.
Our eyes interpret black as basically an area devoid of colour. We can also scientifically measure how we perceive colour in general. Basically each colour is just microscopic variations in wavelengths of light.
Black doesn't and can not be defined as a colour as it is not part of the visible light section of the electromagnetic spectrum.
[Edited by Elite, 1/12/2011 2:52:09 PM]
Light is not required for color to exist. Light is required to see color. If you turn off the lights, everything that was painted red will still be red when you turn off the lights. Being part of the spectrum of light is not a requirement to be a color. While black does not exist as energy, it does exist as matter (where as white is the exact opposite). Those are the only two colors that are unique to either energy or matter. Every other color can exist in light energy as well as pigmentation matter.
Yea that's what I was trying to get at, nice one
My thinking is that by calling black an absence of light, when light is shone on a black object then it should be invisible/non existant because light would be present - not absent.
Therefore I believe black to be a colour as we can see it when light is present, and as mentioned by Neo, light is not required for a colour to exist.
It depends on your definition.
Colour is ultimately our minds interpretation of differentiating the different forms of light that reaching our eyes. Obviously the light produced depends upon the properties of the object it hits, so when you turn the light off the object obviously doesn't change. This merely means that the object retains the properties needed to reflect red light when light is present but it is no longer red as objects have no predetermined colour. Colour is only in our mind and without light can't really exist.
It cannot exist as energy without light. It still exists at the elemental level. The definition of color only changes when looking at the different mediums in which it can exist. Color's definition is not ambiguous.