Subtractive color

Subtractive color mixing
An 1877 color photo by Louis Ducos du Hauron, a French pioneer of color photography. The overlapping subtractive yellow, cyan and red (magenta) image elements can be seen clearly along the edges of the image.

Subtractive color or subtractive color mixing predicts the spectral power distribution of light after it passes through successive layers of partially absorbing media. This idealized model is the essential principle of how dyes and pigments are used in color printing and photography, where the perception of color is elicited after white light passes through microscopic "stacks" of partially absorbing media allowing some wavelengths of light to reach the eye and not others, and also in painting, whether the colors are mixed or applied in successive layers.