Examine the Layers of Colors in Digital Pictures with the ColorPicture Software

Purpose: To explore the two components to a digital picture.

1) Recorded or measured intensities of light coming from the subject being photographed and
2) Intensities of the displayed colors on the computer screen. 

The two do not have to match, and when they don’t, see how the image changes in appearance with this software.

NOTE: The images that follow are not interactive. Please download the software (OSX OS9 PC) and follow along with the mini tutorial.

Getting Started

1) Select a picture (a jpeg, gif, tiff, pict, or pdf file) by clicking 'Select Pictures'. 

A menu will pop up and any image stored on the computer may be selected. 
The first display of any picture will appear normal because the Picture's Red, Green, and Blue data are used in the Computer Screen's Red, Green, and Blue colors, respectively.

2) Select which of the picture's colors you want to display using the the computer screen’s colors.  Each change is automatically displayed since there are many combinations to try.

3) To see the original picture, click ‘Show Original Picture’.

4) Move the cursor across the picture. The pixel beneath the cursor will be highlighted and its intensity of red, green, and blue for both the original picture and the current image will appear in the lower left of the window. 0% means that there is none of that color contributing to the pixel's color. 100% means that all of that color is being used to make the pixel's color.

5) Modified pictures may be saved.

Challenge