Perceptions of Colors in Projected and Televised Pictures

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Publisher: SMPTE
Doc Type: Journal Article
Article Type: research-article
Abstract: Many color photographs are taken in daylight and projected with tungsten lamps. On the other hand, commercial motion pictures made with tungsten studio lamps are almost always projected with arcs that resemble daylight. Color-television receivers produce “white” of daylight quality or even bluer, although most of the scenes televised are tungsten-lighted. Hence the question: “How should a color in one quality of illumination be reproduced for viewing with some other quality?” An investigation undertaken to answer this question will be described, and the results will be discussed. The simple answer suggested by Von Kries's law of coefficients appears to be only a first approximation. Closer analysis of the behavior of the eye seems to indicate that human color vision is served by at least four, and probably by five or even six, different photosensitive processes, having different spectral sensitivities and different degrees of adaptation to various qualities of illumination. These findings do not call into question the trichromatic character of color perception, on which color photography and color television are based. Apparently the visual nervous system provides only three channels, capable of handling only three independent responses. But each of these responses appears to be stimulated by a combination of two or more photosensitive processes in the eye.
Publication Date: 1956-09-01
DOI: 10.5594/J11287
Link: https://doi.org/10.5594/J11287
Author(s): D. L. Macadam

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D. L. Macadam; Perceptions of Colors in Projected and Televised Pictures, Journal of the SMPTE ( Volume: 65, Issue: 9, September 1956); SMPTE, 1956. Available at https://doi.org/10.5594/J11287

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D. L. Macadam; Perceptions of Colors in Projected and Televised Pictures, Journal of the SMPTE ( Volume: 65, Issue: 9, September 1956); SMPTE, 1956. Available at https://doi.org/10.5594/J11287

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D. L. Macadam; Perceptions of Colors in Projected and Televised Pictures, Journal of the SMPTE ( Volume: 65, Issue: 9, September 1956); SMPTE, 1956. Available at https://doi.org/10.5594/J11287

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<span class="citation">D. L. Macadam; <cite>Perceptions of Colors in Projected and Televised Pictures</cite>, Journal of the SMPTE ( Volume: 65, Issue: 9, September 1956); SMPTE, 1956. Available at <a href="https://doi.org/10.5594/J11287" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://doi.org/10.5594/J11287</a></span>

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D. L. Macadam; Perceptions of Colors in Projected and Televised Pictures, Journal of the SMPTE ( Volume: 65, Issue: 9, September 1956); SMPTE, 1956
doi: 10.5594/J11287
url: https://doi.org/10.5594/J11287

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<li>
D. L. Macadam; <cite id="bib-10-5594-j11287">Perceptions of Colors in Projected and Televised Pictures</cite>, Journal of the SMPTE ( Volume: 65, Issue: 9, September 1956); SMPTE, 1956
<span class="doi">10.5594/J11287</span>
</li>