When light interacts with matter, we tend to see colors as a result of the reflection of certain rays and absorption of others. Matter has atoms with certain vibration frequencies which, when they match the vibration frequencies of the light waves, allows the electrons to become excited by the light and “absorb” it. When these electrons are excited by waves that match their natural vibration levels, they excite the atoms around them causing heat from the absorption. When the light waves do not match the vibrational frequencies perfectly, the matter reflects, meaning that rather than vibrating at the high freqency as it would if it matched, the electrons vibrate quickly for a short time and the energy is put back again as a light wave.
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