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Color mixing.

OPEN BEAM100% visible transmissionNo filter in the beamLight absorbed by the gel is converted to heat.Deeper, lower-transmission colors absorb more of the source’sspectrum, so they convert more light energy to heat.Side viewIndividual wavelengths are shown to illustrate how the lightpassing through the gel combines to produce the resulting color.
Passes through

The full visible spectrum

Absorbed by the gel

None — no gel is in the beam

The result

Unfiltered, warm white light.

The waves represent oscillations of the electric field, not a zigzag path through space. Their spacing is proportional to representative wavelengths from 660 nm (red) to 410 nm (violet); size and speed are enlarged and slowed for illustration. Wave brightness uses Rosco’s published transmission percentages at those wavelengths, with midpoint interpolation where the data sheet reports adjacent 20 nm measurements. These seven samples simplify each filter’s continuous curve. Rosco’s guide to color filters ↗ · NASA: visible light ↗