This is an essential aspect of how the human visual system functions, particularly for artists, and not just an interesting fact. It highlights why, as artists, we shouldn’t fixate on a single area of the subject we're studying, as this distorts our perception of true relative colour. Instead, we should "flick" our eyes around the subject to make accurate comparisons. Referring to this as the "white balance" of our visual system might sound positive, but what's really happening is that the colour receptor cells, or cones, become fatigued. They become overstimulated and unable to process specific light frequencies—a limitation of our visual system.
When you consider how relative and subjective colour vision truly is, the concept of "white balance" appears to be a completely human standard. Dinosaurs, like modern birds, are thought to have had tetrachromatic vision, with four cone receptors (compared to the human three), allowing them to detect wavelengths in the ultraviolet range. For them, what we perceive as blue might appear more 'yellow' when compared to ultraviolet colours. This highlights just how subjective and relative colour perception is, varying significantly across species and visual systems.
After about 10-12 secs of looking at the cyan/yellow patch, I could feel/see these two colors competing, trying to overtake each other with Y winning by establishing an intense vertical band as if barricading against Cy. And for a few secs B looked just fine. Great experiment !
This is an essential aspect of how the human visual system functions, particularly for artists, and not just an interesting fact. It highlights why, as artists, we shouldn’t fixate on a single area of the subject we're studying, as this distorts our perception of true relative colour. Instead, we should "flick" our eyes around the subject to make accurate comparisons. Referring to this as the "white balance" of our visual system might sound positive, but what's really happening is that the colour receptor cells, or cones, become fatigued. They become overstimulated and unable to process specific light frequencies—a limitation of our visual system.
When you consider how relative and subjective colour vision truly is, the concept of "white balance" appears to be a completely human standard. Dinosaurs, like modern birds, are thought to have had tetrachromatic vision, with four cone receptors (compared to the human three), allowing them to detect wavelengths in the ultraviolet range. For them, what we perceive as blue might appear more 'yellow' when compared to ultraviolet colours. This highlights just how subjective and relative colour perception is, varying significantly across species and visual systems.
After about 10-12 secs of looking at the cyan/yellow patch, I could feel/see these two colors competing, trying to overtake each other with Y winning by establishing an intense vertical band as if barricading against Cy. And for a few secs B looked just fine. Great experiment !
Too cool!
Is this also referred to as "chromatic aberration"?