Light Theory
Basics of Light Theory
All light has a source, whether it be a lamp, the sun, a window, a screen, etc. The light will be brightest from the source and will go in the direction that the source is pointed, and will reflect in different directions depending on what the light hits in the room and is reflected off of. Different materials and colours will reflect light differently.
How Colour Effects Light Reflection
When lights hit different colours, it reacts differently. On a spectrum with white at one end and black at the other, we can see how light reacts in the extremes. Black absorbs light, so light hitting a black object will have no reflection or very little (depending on the material of the surface - matte black will have no light reflection and shiny black will have some light reflection). White reflects light, so light hitting a white object will have a lot of light reflection, a shiny white surface will reflect back almost as much light as hits it.
All colours and shades absorb some of the light, but the darker the colour, the more it will absorb and the lighter the colour, the more it will reflect back. No colour or material will ever reflect back 100% of the light that hits it, but a matte black object can absorb 100% of the light.
When a light reflects off a coloured surface, it will reflect some of the colour of the surface back. Light is actually a spectrum of different colours that we see as white until it hits a surface. Once it hits a surface, all the colours apart from the colour of the object are absorbed, so only the light that is the same colour as the object is reflected. However, this is only true with white light. If the light hitting a surface is a coloured light, it will reflect or not reflect depending on how the colour of the light and the colour of the object react together according to the colour spectrum.
How Surface Material Effects Light Reflection
The type of surface the light hits affects how the light is reflected, absorbed or diffused. If light hits a shiny surface, the light will be reflected back at the angle that it hits the object. If a light hits a matte surface, the light is diffused and is reflected back in multiple different directions but with less intensity - the more matte the surface, the weaker the light is reflected.