Glossary for Geospatial Science

subtractive color: �Creating color by using absorption or scattering to selectively remove some of the colors of light, or radiation, reaching the human eye is a subtractive process.� The use of pigments, such as color printing or a painting, demonstrate this subtractive color process.� The greater the number of different colored pigments mixed together, the darker a pigmented object appears.� This darkness results from an increased absorption of visible light by the pigments and, consequently, less light reflected to the eye.� The presence of fewer pigments or their absence altogether results in greater reflectance of visible light.� Selective absorption removes a color(s) from the reflected radiation and results in the perception of the complementary color.