Transmission, absorption, and reflection of light My understanding is: when light hits an object, it can do one of three things: transmit through the object, be absorbed into the object, or reflect from the object.

However, I have also learned that when light hits atoms, it can excite electrons, leading to another emission of light as the electrons go back down to their ground states. 

The first paragraph, while intuitive, does not seem to be logically explained by the second. Can someone please help me understand the first in terms of the concepts of the second?

Specifically, is absorption of light exciting an electron with more energy than necessary, and some energy remains in the atom, or is the entire energy of the photon absorbed?

Is reflection just hitting the atom with a photon that is just the right amount of energy to get it excited, so no net energy is gained?
While I can't explain the phenomenon of light transmission, I can say a few things. The energy levels correlating to physical states and the gaps between the states are quantized. This an all or nothing reaction. The frequency of light must exactly match the energy (E=hv) needed for the excitation event (electron is pushed into a higher orbital, a vibrational mode to expressed, etc) for absorption to occur. When the light frequency is mismatched and does not absorb, it will reflect. The frequency that induces excitation is theoretically the frequency of emission, but phenomena such as intersystem crossing may create multiple paths by which the excitation energy will disperse. Hope this helped.