Colours and how they trick the mind

[Mitchell]

Hi all!

Thought I would share a picture to illustrate, how what you see may not be what is there. The human brain interprets some colours different, depending on the arrangement of surrounding colours. This can become particularly relevant, in processing images and even when studying a plant and comparing the shades of colours. Aside from that it is just interesting.


The "blue" tiles on the top face of the left cube are the same color as the "yellow" tiles in the top of the right cube.

Others colours in the image change dramatcally when shifted to the other cube... Try it.. Hit the print screen button, open MS paint, press Ctrl V. Grab the "eye dropper", select the square in the left image then paint them on the right hand one....

Interesting huh!?

Colours are not always as the seem, they absorb the surrounding colours.



Images created by Beau Lotto, located here http://www.lottolab.org/

[Mitchell]

Here's another version.

Take a look at the brown tile in the center of the top face and the yellow tile in the center of the side facing slightly to the left. They're the same color.

[Mitchell]

This also extends into the area of shades and gradients. These all apply in real world situations. So far we can not be certain of exact colours and now we are looking at out ability to judge shades.

Perhaps our vision is not so rock solid. Is our brain just simulating a reality, if so why?

"Humans don't perceive gradients very well. Generally, carnivores excel in edge definition (better for hunting) and herbivores excel in gradient definition (maybe better for picking out grains or edible vegetation)."

A and B are the same.

Image created by Edward H. Adelson.

[Mitchell]

No one found this interesting?

[Ash]

Mitchell- I never saw this the first time and do find it interesting. I am a painter/illustrator (old media like oils or guache), one of the many ways that I match colour / hue / shadow is to look only at that colour exlcuding the surroundings. I use my finger tips to make a small diamond window and look through that blocking out the rest. Compare, block, compare again.

I find it easy to work from life, less easy from flat photographs and have great difficulty working to reproduce and image on an LCD screen (because it is backlit). I can see the match in the third one but I am not convinced by the second. The brown in the top tile and the tile loose in the foreground yes but the other either tricks my eyes completely or is actually different! I can't grab it to stick it in photoshop for a match check.

cheers

Ash

[Mitchell]

You can use ms paint windows.

I checked, as called "bull" but it is the same colour. Crazy!

I worked for a number of years in a paintshop, I witnessed this first hand many times. Paint manufacturers actually take it into account, when grouping colours in there pamphlets.

If I have several colour swatches, I can flip them around and the colours just cm's apart look completely different from each other yet are the same.