<p>Based on my current knowledge, light increases the saturation of a color. If that's the case, then the form shadow of an object should have lower saturation than the part of the object hit by light (not the highlight; just the part of the object that's between the highlight and terminator).</p>
<p>However, after studying both traditional and digital artists' works, I noticed that many people increase the saturation in the shadows and decrease it in the light.</p>
<p>Why do they do that? Are they simply using artistic license because they don't want to lose color in the shadows?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-03-21T17:43:52.640Z
I do not think you are correct in your theory regarding light and saturation. What if the light is a tint that is complementary to the surface color? you will get grey or black instead of more saturation. If a full spectrum light is over powering you will get get washed out colors (think of a desert scene at noon).
rebusB
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-03-22T21:46:04.133Z
@WebHead I've been refraining from taking photos because I've been told that modern cameras exaggerate the saturation of colors. Instead, I've been creating scenes with models and lighting in Cycles, a path-tracing rendering engine that's supposed to be physically accurate. When I save the rendered image to a file and open it in my painting app, I color-pick the various color zones. Cycles actually shows _no_ change in saturation in the light or the shadows.
MeshHead
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-03-22T21:49:31.333Z
@rebusB Yea, I'm aware of how complementary colors neutralize each other. What had me banging my head against my desk is an environment with normal white light. I think I've got it now. Thanks for the input!
MeshHead
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-03-23T14:14:00.277Z
Look at [Josef Albers "Interaction of Color"](http://www.g-e-s-t-a-l-t.org/MEDIA/PDF/Interaction-of-Color.pdf). There is a lot more to experiencing color than a pixel RGB value interpreted as HSV. The choice of color for a shadow is as much about the colors around it as the color in it.
rebusB
<color><lighting>
How does light affect saturation?
MeshHead
# How does light affect saturation?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-03-21)

Based on my current knowledge, light increases the saturation of a color. If that's the case, then the form shadow of an object should have lower saturation than the part of the object hit by light (not the highlight; just the part of the object that's between the highlight and terminator).

However, after studying both traditional and digital artists' works, I noticed that many people increase the saturation in the shadows and decrease it in the light.

Why do they do that? Are they simply using artistic license because they don't want to lose color in the shadows?

**Tags:** color, lighting

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I do not think you are correct in your theory regarding light and saturation. What if the light is a tint that is complementary to the surface color? you will get grey or black instead of more saturation. If a full spectrum light is over powering you will get get washed out colors (think of a desert scene at noon).  
> **username_0**: @WebHead I've been refraining from taking photos because I've been told that modern cameras exaggerate the saturation of colors. Instead, I've been creating scenes with models and lighting in Cycles, a path-tracing rendering engine that's supposed to be physically accurate. When I save the rendered image to a file and open it in my painting app, I color-pick the various color zones. Cycles actually shows _no_ change in saturation in the light or the shadows.  
> **username_0**: @username_1 Yea, I'm aware of how complementary colors neutralize each other. What had me banging my head against my desk is an environment with normal white light. I think I've got it now. Thanks for the input!  
> **username_1**: Look at [Josef Albers "Interaction of Color"](http://www.g-e-s-t-a-l-t.org/MEDIA/PDF/Interaction-of-Color.pdf). There is a lot more to experiencing color than a pixel RGB value interpreted as HSV. The choice of color for a shadow is as much about the colors around it as the color in it.  

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