<wearily pulls his head up out of the Poser Manual, blinks a few times, and then raises his hand>

So I have some questions already. I am reading about the root nodes at the moment, and more specifically the PoserSurface Root Node.

Diffuse Color states that it is the surface color multiplied through any light striking the object. I am not sure I fully understand that statement. My limited understanding of color and light is that it is always reflected light hitting our eye. So something appears Red because it bounces the red parts of the spectrum and absorbs the others.

So what exactly does it mean when it says, "surface color multiplied through any light"? Why multiplied and not added, or some other math function?

Fresnel Blend:

Outer Color is defined as the color of the surfaces facing away from the camera. When I think of outer color and inner color, I think of a sphere with the light (or color) outside of the sphere and the light (or color) that is inside the sphere. This seems to imply the opposite: that outer color is the color of the parts of the sphere that are on the inside or facing away from the camera.

Similarly for Inner Color, it is defined as the color of the surfaces facing towards the camera, which is what I would consider the outside of the sphere.

Can someone explain this a little better?