That two people can come to the same conclusion doesn't tell us that what they 'see' is identical. I'd like to believe it, but there's no way to test this. For example: give Thomas a bunch a set of high quality standard colour patches. He matches them to a set of samples under standard conditions. His conclusions turn out to be identical with those reached by Richard - and Mary and Jane. Does this mean Harry sees what Dick and the girls do? I doubt it. For our purposes, as photographers, it does of course.
We all see colour; but it happens inside our heads and we have no way of deciding if its the same in each head. The brain translates the signals sent along our optic nerve into something or other that ends up as the perception of colour. Its inconceivable that the same number of nerve pulses, of identical duration and sequence, in other words pattern, would occur in two different people. Its easier to imagine winning the New York lottery six times in a row. However, the signals must average out and both people end up 'seeing' the 'same' colour - more or less. Its the 'more or less' that interests me for the moment. No two people have the same DNA sequence. If two did they would be identical. Then it might be possible that they would generate the same visual pattern to a controlled stimulus. But there are two many other variables for such a simplistic thought experiment. Once a man threw a pebble - or was it a brickbat? - into a pond and then another and another. The splash and ripples were always different and he spent his life trying to work out all the variables. Of course he used ball bearings, vacuum chambers, did the work underground etc. and in the end he gave up. No two splashes were ever the same. Too many variables and some of them may still be undiscovered - gravity waves for one. Don Dr E D F Williams http://personal.inet.fi/cool/don.williams Author's Web Site and Photo Gallery Updated: March 30, 2002 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug Franklin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 4:10 PM Subject: Re: HELP: Monitor/Printer color matching > Hi Don, > > On Thu, 21 Nov 2002 13:13:55 +0200, Dr E D F Williams wrote: > > > I don't think there is any way we can be sure that what one > > person sees is exactly the same as that seen by another. > > Well, it's been tested, though I couldn't tell you the technique, and I > didn't do it myself. Consistency of color perception, or > inconsistency, plays a big role in textiles, for example. The "dyeing > and coloring" folks in the textile industry have gone to great lengths > to figure out where they stand in judging product colors before they > leave the factory. This is becoming less of an issue with automated > (computerized) inspection. > > In the past, the general rule has been that human females have more > consistent and subtle color perception than human males. Overall, the > mapping between light wavelengths and color names is remarkably > consistent across different humans, once you filter out gross visual > disfunction, like color blindness. > > > can't be sure that Tom or Dick sees the same thing when he looks > > at the same Rose petal. His eye will distinguish the wavelength > > as a separate 'colour' but will it be the same as mine? > > In general, while maybe not be the identical, the two will typically be > very close to each other, as long as neither of you is color blind, > etc. > > > I do know that settings Aino will put up with on her monitor > > downstairs would drive me up the wall. > > That's a completely separate issue, however. "What Aino will tolerate > on her monitor" is more of an aesthetic issue. However, there are some > color combinations that cause physical or chemical stress in the visual > system, but there aren't that many of them. > > Juxtapose a strong blue with a strong red, and you set up competing > chemical reactions in the neurons of the retina. For most people this > seems to make the edges between the red and blue appear to vibrate. Try > red text on a blue background, or, better yet, blue text on a red > background. > > As a test, cut the following text and put it in a file, then view it > with your web browser. > > <HTML><HEAD> > <TITLE>Color Test</TITLE> > </HEAD><BODY BGCOLOR="#0000FF"> > <FONT SIZE="+3" COLOR="#FF0000"> > <P> > Just a little test to see how strongly the red/blue > juxtaposition affects you. For many people, it will > be hard to read this text ... the text will appear > to vibrate against the background. > </P> > </FONT> > </BODY></HTML> > > > > TTYL, DougF KG4LMZ > > >
