What is Hue?

What is Hue?

            Hue is the term for the pure spectrum colors commonly referred to by the "color names" such as red, orange, yellow, blue, green violet which appear in the hue circle or rainbow. Theoretically all hues can be mixed from three basic hues, known as primaries. When pigment primaries are all mixed together, the theoretical result is black; Therefore pigment mixture is sometimes referred to as subtractive mixture. In mixing colors hues can be desaturated (reduced in purity, weakened) in one of three ways: mix with white to lighten the value (tint), mix with black to darken the value (shade), or mix with gray or the complement to either lighten or darken the value ( tone). (Jirousek, 1995)

            Hue also defines mixtures of two pure colors like “red-yellow” (orange) or “yellow-green”. Actually hue is usually one property of three when used to determine a certain color. Hue is more technical definition of our color perception which can be used to communicate color ideas. The ranges of hue in degrees is from 0-359 degrees. And hue are basic color we learn to connect with words as children. Hue also can refer to the set of  “pure” colors within a color space. (Hue, 2008)  

Example of Hue :

Figure 1 : example of hue

            Based on the picture above, the pair of images on the above demonstrate this. In the color image of the fashion model the coat draws our attention through contrast of hue although the skin tones blend with the background. It also seems to be softly blending with a background that seems quite close, and is very similar to the coat in value. The face tends to blend with the background which is similar in both hue and value. In the black and white version, however, the coat virtually disappears, since only value, not hue, are available to distinguish it, and the values are quite similar. However, the strong value contrast of the eyes and hat draw our attention to the face, even though the contours of the face seem to melt into the background. Therefore the black and white version emphasizes the model more than the garment. (Jirousek, 1995)

Figure 2 : Mixtures Of Pigments

Figure 3 : Example of hue images

Figure 4 : Example of hue images

Bibliography

Hue. (2008). WorkWithColor.com.

Jirousek, C. (1995). Color, Value and Hue. Art, Design, and Visual Thinking.