![]() ![]() This is not literally true a painting with a reduced value range can be visually exciting, as many paintings by Monet or Whistler will demonstrate.īut if a painting has a poor compositional arrangement of values within its value range, there is little that color, texture, or line can do to salvage it. The comparison may suggest that a picture with a limited value range will appear flat and uninteresting. Notice how strongly the black and white image seems to guide your eye! ![]() The remarkable similarity between the original color and the black and white versions, compared to the noticeable impoverishment in the unvalued version, demonstrates the importance of value in a painting's overall composition and visual impact. The original GIF file (above) was transformed by setting GIF colors to "exact 256", using "magic wand" to select all pixels of each color, adjusting the L* value of the selected color to 60 (without changing a* or b* values), then using paint bucket to refill all selected pixels with the adjusted color the transformed image has 223 GIF colors No variation in lightness, chromaticity unchanged The original painting (well, a picture of it) The original GIF file (below) was transformed using the Adobe Photoshop grayscale mode the transformed image has 100 GIF colors No variation in chromaticity, lightness unchanged Even in an abstract or pattern design, lightness dominates hue as the patternmaking element in a picture.Īs a simple illustration, I've modified a painting by Edward Hopper either to remove the variations in chromaticity (setting CIELAB a* and b* to zero) leaving only variations in lightness, or to remove the variations in lightness (setting all CIELAB L* values to 60) leaving only the variations in chromaticity (images, below). It defines our perception of space through the luminance differences between the lighted and dark surfaces of three dimensional objects and long distance effects of aerial perspective. It is the strongest element of visual contrast and largely determines our perception of form as we explore a picture. This page develops the perceptual importance and complexity of lightness in our visual response, and explores the various ways artists think about, measure, and control the value structure in visual works of art. Even when color vision appeared in mammals, it was basically a matter of long wavelength light compared to short wavelength light yellow against blue which remain in our color vision as the hues that have, at their peak saturation, the widest difference in lightness. Lightness or brightness is only thing that the oldest visual systems were designed to perceive. It is hard to overstate the importance of good value structure to the impact of visual art. Given all the space devoted to hue in color theory, it is surprising to learn that value is the most important design element of a painting. Lightness, which artists traditionally refer to as value or tonal value, is the light or dark of a color independent of its chromaticity (hue and chroma). ![]()
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