Black and white are opposites, so far so good, BUT what's the opposite
of brown? Or any other colour for that matter?
Up and down are opposites but what's the opposite of sideways?
Funny old language innit'. HAPPY CHRISTMAS.
Opposites?
Actually Stephen there are charts if I recall correctly to do with colours and complementary colours and tonal opposites kinda thing, and the opposite of sideways if you still think in picture terms could be portrait- as in portrait and landscape. But you are right it is a funny old language and Merry Christmas to you in I hope a sunnier spain. 
Blue and yellow are opposites, as are red and green, when you're talking about light (reflected or otherwise) as per various colour space diagrams. On a colour computer you measure things along three axes - how red or green it is (delta a, + is red - is green), how blue or yellow it is (delta b, + is yellow - is blue) and how light or dark it is (delta L, + is light, - is dark) and you mash the whole thing together to give you a Delta E number which is a very rough comparison between colour, generally used to tell you if two very similar colours are the same. It is generally accepted that if two colours vary by more than a Delta E of 1 the difference is easily visible to the naked eye. The 'deltas' just denote difference, i.e. something with a delta a of +2 would be more red than something else. When measuring a colour rather than comparing it, the delta indicates the difference from 'white'.
So the colour white would have 'a' and 'b' readings of zero with a high 'L' value. Black would have a very low 'L' value while the 'a' and 'b' readings are less important - think Father Ted with his very, very, very, very, very, very dark blue socks.
Quote: Afinkawan @ December 21 2010, 9:35 AM GMTBlue and yellow are opposites, as are red and green, when you're talking about light (reflected or otherwise) as per various colour space diagrams. On a colour computer you measure things along three axes - how red or green it is (delta a, + is red - is green), how blue or yellow it is (delta b, + is yellow - is blue) and how light or dark it is (delta L, + is light, - is dark) and you mash the whole thing together to give you a Delta E number which is a very rough comparison between colour, generally used to tell you if two very similar colours are the same. It is generally accepted that if two colours vary by more than a Delta E of 1 the difference is easily visible to the naked eye. The 'deltas' just denote difference, i.e. something with a delta a of +2 would be more red than something else. When measuring a colour rather than comparing it, the delta indicates the difference from 'white'.
So the colour white would have 'a' and 'b' readings of zero with a high 'L' value. Black would have a very low 'L' value while the 'a' and 'b' readings are less important - think Father Ted with his very, very, very, very, very, very dark blue socks.
Yeah I knew that I was trying to ahem keep it in you know layman's terms.
Quote: Marc P @ December 21 2010, 9:42 AM GMTYeah I knew that I was trying to ahem keep it in you know layman's terms.
And a very good job you did too
Perhaps I should add that what I described was a colour space but that RGB and CMYK are colour models. A colour space can be thought of as a sort of 3D map to tell you where a colour is and a model tells you how to go about making that colour.
Something like a Pantone reference describes a particular point in a colour space but also tells you what ppaints to mix to make that colour.
The Opposite of Sex is a great little film. Check it out.
Brilliant elucidations. Thanks. What's the opposite of railway, somnambulist,
Spring roll, April fool, rollmop herring and lots of other strange words that
are seemingly unopposed. HAPPY YULETIDE to those who can't read.
Where the hell did this thread come from... just chuck everything into General. Hmph!
Quote: EllieJP @ December 21 2010, 1:33 PM GMTWhere the hell did this thread come from... just chuck everything into General. Hmph!
You love it!