Crystal Field Theory explains the colors of transition metal complexes based on ligand-metal interactions. The electrostatic interaction between ligands and metal d-orbitals splits the d-orbital energies. For an octahedral complex, the d-orbitals point directly at ligands have higher energy than those that bisect ligands. This splitting pattern determines if the complex is high or low spin, which then dictates its color and magnetic properties. The spectrochemical series orders ligands by their ability to cause crystal field splitting, correlating ligand type with complex color.