PHOTOGRAPHY -- Emulsion Colors - Color film requires three layers of emulsions, each sensitive to only one of the primary colors of light:

blue, green, or red.

These are the ADDITIVE COLORS: Light adds …

(all wavelengths of light added together = white)

As light passes through the layers, each emulsion records areas where its particular color appears in the scene. When developed, emulsion releases dye that is the complementary color of the light recorded:

blue light activates yellow dye

green light activates magenta dye

red light activates cyan dye

Complementary colors are used because they produce the original color of the scene when the film is processed.

Therefore, complementaries of the Additive, or Light Primaries are the Subtractive, or Pigment Primaries.

Pigments, or material surfaces, absorb, or take away light: all pigment colors added together = black, or the absence of reflected light.