Color and Tone Elements in Digital Photography

In black and white we work with different densities of gray that correspond to different brightness of the original scene; it's a transformation of the tones that doesn't pretend to be realistic. Nonetheless, in color, besides controlling the transformation of the brightness in densities (like we do in black and white), we have to pay a lot of attention to what happens with the colors . In the final image, the conversion of the original tones can be adjusted to “what we saw” or be notably different. If the reproduction is good, the transformation goes unnoticed: the tones appear natural (the gray zones in the scene are neutral as well as in the image), and the eye accepts it as a photograph with good color balance. On the other hand, if a color predominates unjustifiably in the image, dying the neutral zones and altering the original tones (specially skin tones, familiar objects or a characteristic color), the eye rejects it and the technically introduced alteration is evident and can be bothersome (which happens in black and

white). Therefore, it's necessary to make a clear distinction between what we see when shooting and the way the scene will be registered on film. We are going to first examine the elements of color from the point of view of our perception. Then we will relate these elements with there translation to a good photographic image.

Tone
The most important characteristic of a color is it's tone (it's name) or, in color-light terms, the wavelength that is dominant in it's spectrum. For example, if we decide an object is red, it is equal to stating that light reflected by it is mainly composed of the color, accompanied with others that determine different shades.