White Light.... a further exploration into colour

Today – we turn our attention to WHITE:

White is what we see when all colours come together in perfect balance.




White is a color but more accurately, it contains all the colors of the visible spectrum and is sometimes described as an achromatic color.

It represents reverence, purity, simplicity, cleanliness, peace, humility, precision, innocence, youth, birth, winter, snow, good, sterility, and marriage.
We use white in figures of speech like "pure as the driven snow" or "a white lie." We associate white with the good guy in old western movies.
In Japan, white carnations signify death.
In eastern cultures white symbolizes coldness and sterility.

Colour, almost always subconsciously, has a profound effect on how we feel both mentally and physically. Dr. Morton Walker, in his book ‘The Power of Color’, (sic) suggested that the ancient Egyptians as well as the Native American Indians used colour and coloured light to heal.

White...is not a mere absence of colour; it is a shining and affirmative thing, as fierce as red, as definite as black...God paints in many colours; but He never paints so gorgeously, I had almost said so gaudily, as when He paints in white.

~ G. K. Chesterton

Positive:

Hygiene, sterility, clarity, purity, cleanness, simplicity,

sophistication, efficiency.

Negative:

Sterility, coldness, barriers, unfriendliness, elitism.

Just as black is total absorption, so white is total reflection. In effect, it reflects the full force of the spectrum into our eyes. Thus it also creates barriers, but differently from black, and it is often a strain to look at. It communicates, "Don’t touch! White is purity and, like black, uncompromising; it is clean, hygienic, and sterile.

Visually, white gives a heightened perception of space. The negative effect of white on warm colours is to make them look and feel garish, so take care here.

But do remember, white has made a huge comeback in scrapbooking! White is bright and can create a sense of space or add highlights which is why it’s great for backgrounds and matting onto a darker surface. Try adding a thin border of white around your photo’s to make them ‘pop’ . Or just use it behind your focus shots for extra emphasis there.