The Grotthuss–Draper law (also called the principle of photochemical activation) states that only that light which is absorbed by a system can bring about a photochemical change. Materials such as dyes and phosphors must be able to absorb "light" at optical frequencies. This law provides a basis for fluorescence and phosphorescence. The law was first proposed in 1817 by Theodor Grotthuss and in 1842, independently, by John William Draper.
This is considered to be one of the two basic laws of photochemistry. The second law is the Stark–Einstein law, which says that primary chemical or physical reactions occur with each photon absorbed.