Location Lighting for Television

5

Colour Television

5.1   Principles

Colour television is based on the principle of additive colour mixing in which three suitable primaries (red, green and blue) can be mixed together to produce (synthesise) white and a wide range of colours. The colour seen is dependent on the relative amounts of red, green and blue light (Figure 5.1).

Figure 5.1 Additive colour mixing

Mixtures between two of the primary colours can be plotted as points on the line joining the two primaries, e.g. a mixture of red and green produces yellow. When the three primary colours are mixed together the resultant colour ‘mix’ can be plotted inside the triangle. In colorimetry ...