Oct 23, 2020 11:48 PM
https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/...orange-sky
EXCERPTS: On Sept. 9, many West Coast residents looked out their windows and witnessed a post-apocalyptic landscape: silhouetted cars, buildings and people bathed in an overpowering orange light that looked like a jacked-up sunset. The scientific explanation for what people were seeing was pretty straightforward. [...] But most city dwellers weren't seeing the science. Instead, the burnt orange world they were witnessing was eerily reminiscent of scenes from sci-fi films like “Blade Runner: 2049" and “Dune."
[...] When we dissect movies in my design classes, I remind my students that everything on the screen is there for a reason. Sound, light, wardrobe, people – and, yes, the colors. ... In her short film "Color Psychology," video editor Lilly Mtz-Seara assembles a montage from more than 50 films to show the emotional impact intentional color grading can lend to movies...
So why orange and teal? In the 17th century, Isaac Newton created his "color wheel." The circle of colors represents the full visible light spectrum, and people who work in color will use it to assemble palettes, or color schemes. A monochromatic palette involves tints from a single hue – lighter and darker shades of blue, for example. A tertiary palette divides the wheel with three evenly spaced spokes: bright reds, greens and blues.
Among the most striking combinations are two hues 180 degrees apart on the color wheel. Due to a phenomenon called "simultaneous contrast," the presence of a single color is intensified when paired with its complement. Green and purple complement one another, as do yellow and blue. But, according to German scientist, poet and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the strongest of the complementary pairings exist in the ranges of – you guessed it – orange and teal.
For movie makers, this color palette can be a powerful tool. Human skin matches a relatively narrow swath of the orange section of the color wheel, from very light to very dark. A filmmaker who wants to make a human within a scene "pop" can easily do so by setting the "orange-ish" human against a teal background. Filmmakers can also switch between the two depending on the emotional needs of the scene, with the oscillation adding drama... (MORE - details)
EXCERPTS: On Sept. 9, many West Coast residents looked out their windows and witnessed a post-apocalyptic landscape: silhouetted cars, buildings and people bathed in an overpowering orange light that looked like a jacked-up sunset. The scientific explanation for what people were seeing was pretty straightforward. [...] But most city dwellers weren't seeing the science. Instead, the burnt orange world they were witnessing was eerily reminiscent of scenes from sci-fi films like “Blade Runner: 2049" and “Dune."
[...] When we dissect movies in my design classes, I remind my students that everything on the screen is there for a reason. Sound, light, wardrobe, people – and, yes, the colors. ... In her short film "Color Psychology," video editor Lilly Mtz-Seara assembles a montage from more than 50 films to show the emotional impact intentional color grading can lend to movies...
So why orange and teal? In the 17th century, Isaac Newton created his "color wheel." The circle of colors represents the full visible light spectrum, and people who work in color will use it to assemble palettes, or color schemes. A monochromatic palette involves tints from a single hue – lighter and darker shades of blue, for example. A tertiary palette divides the wheel with three evenly spaced spokes: bright reds, greens and blues.
Among the most striking combinations are two hues 180 degrees apart on the color wheel. Due to a phenomenon called "simultaneous contrast," the presence of a single color is intensified when paired with its complement. Green and purple complement one another, as do yellow and blue. But, according to German scientist, poet and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the strongest of the complementary pairings exist in the ranges of – you guessed it – orange and teal.
For movie makers, this color palette can be a powerful tool. Human skin matches a relatively narrow swath of the orange section of the color wheel, from very light to very dark. A filmmaker who wants to make a human within a scene "pop" can easily do so by setting the "orange-ish" human against a teal background. Filmmakers can also switch between the two depending on the emotional needs of the scene, with the oscillation adding drama... (MORE - details)