Would someone explain how this works as far as what it does or what it can be used to do?
The components of the first colour are raised to the power of the components of the second colour. You could just use a scalar for the second colour. The logic is similar to this:
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=2072
except replace "multiplied by" with "raised to the power of"
As an example of why this might be useful, gamma correction of images is done by raising a colour to the power of some value (the larger the power value, the darker the resulting image).
Matt
Thanks Matt. This is very helpful.