HSB Color Modal and Color Wheel

HSB Color Modal

HSB is a color model that is somewhat analogous to Munsell’s system of hue, value, and chroma in that it uses three similar axes to define a color. HSB is derived from RGB color spaces and is a device dependent color space. In HSB, the three fundamental characteristics of color are:

• Hue: is the color reflected from or transmitted through an object. It is measured as a location on the standard color wheel, expressed as a degree between 0° and 360°. In common use, hue is identified by the name of the color such as red, orange, or green. To view the color wheel, see Using the color wheel.
• Saturation: sometimes called chroma, is the strength or purity of the color. Saturation represents the amount of gray in proportion to the hue, measured as a percentage from 0% (gray) to 100% (fully saturated). On the standard color wheel, saturation increases from the center to the edge.
• Brightness: is the relative lightness or darkness of the color, usually measured as a percentage from 0% (black) to 100% (white).

You can use the HSB model in Photoshop to define a color in the Color palette, Color Picker dialog box and read out the HSB color using Info Palette, but there is no HSB mode available for creating and editing images.

HSB model: H. Hue S. Saturation B. Brightness

Using the color wheel

When working with color, there are numerous ways to achieve similar results in color balance. It’s useful to consider the type of image you have and the effect you want to produce. If you’re new to adjusting color components, it helps to keep a diagram of the standard color wheel on hand. You can use the color wheel to predict how a change in one color component affects other colors and also how changes translate between RGB and CMYK color models.

Color wheel: R. Red Y. Yellow G. Green C. Cyan B. Blue M. Magenta

For example, you can decrease the amount of any color in an image by increasing the amount of its opposite on the color wheel–and vice versa. Colors that lie opposite each other on the standard color wheel are known as complementary colors. Similarly, you can increase and decrease a color by adjusting the two adjacent colors on the wheel, or even by adjusting the two colors adjacent to its opposite.

In a CMYK image, you can decrease magenta either by decreasing the amount of magenta or by increasing its complement (by adding cyan and yellow). You can even combine these two corrections, minimizing their effect on overall lightness. In an RGB image, you can decrease magenta by removing red and blue or by adding green. All of these adjustments result in an overall color balance containing less magenta.

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