As we have already discussed, there are two basic sets of color: RGB and CMY. We call RGB additive color and CMY subtractive color. Realizing the difference between emitted light (RGB) and reflected light (CMY), we can begin to understand why.
When working with RGB, we increase the intensity of the blue light if we want our image to be more blue. If the blue value is already at 100% then the image cannot contain any more blue. But if we are working with CMY, we subtract yellow to achieve a bluer image. This is because yellow reflects red, and green light and absorbs blue light. By removing yellow, less blue light will be absorbed and more blue light will be reflected resulting in a bluer image.
Another example is the concept of black and white. White is the presence of all color and is obtained by adding red, green, and blue. Black on the other hand is the absence of all color and is obtained by combining cyan, magenta and yellow. Because cyan absorbs red, magenta absorbs green, and yellow absorbs blue, we are left with black. This is demonstrated by the two pictures below. Looking at the middle where all three combine we can see that RGB yields white and CMY yields black.
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