Main Index
    Lobsang Studio
    mya Colour
        – Inside mya
        – the Human Equation
        – Colour Conversion
        – Human Perception
        – Our Eyes and Mind
        – Retina Resolution
    Pantone Interactive
    ColorPhazer Tool
    PixelPhazer Tool
    Natures Collection
    Hubble Imagery
    Abstract Art

Between our Eyes and Mind
Much like how our pupils auto-adjust depending on the amount of available light, the sensitivity of our cones also auto-adjust depending on the saturation of colours we are seeing. The more our rods and cones get used, the less sensitive they become; and the less light they receive, the more sensitive they become.

This attribute is the most noticeable when we reduce our vision to a narrow range of colour like when looking through a strong colour filter. If we view our world through a filter that only lets in red light (or any other band of colour), our green and blue cones are at first inactive. The longer this is performed, the more the red cones will decrease their sensitivity from heavy use, and the green & blue cones will increase their sensitivity until they start to send signals, slowly turning the red world into more perceived colours. Astronauts on the moon noticed this effect when they saw many colours while in a pure gray environment (the colour cones continued to step up their sensitivity in search of any form of colour contrast).

When observing this blue pattern, depending on your keenness of perception, the center block will appear as a solid and even blue for approximately 1 to 3 seconds. Then it will fade into a gradation from darker blue to a lighter blue. This is a good example of how our eyes/mind change what we see as needed. The center block really is one solid colour but our eyes insist on adjusting their individual colour sensitivity until the brain feels comfortable with amount of perceived contrast.

Our vision is very good at distinguishing between very minute shades of colour and therefore we are good at seeing subtle details within objects and images. On the flip side, we are terrible at determining colour accuracy. So if two colours are side-by-side we excel in determining the differences but if time is thrown in-between seeing colour-A and colour-B then our senses & memory work rather poorly.

This chessboard image easily exploits our inability to determine colour accuracy. Squares A and B are exactly the same colour/shade/value (so is the left portion of square C) but unless the two colours/squares are side-by-side, then it is remarkably difficult to perceive the reality (more examples). mya uses this technique to reproduce details and texture in areas where there are limited amounts of available CMYK colours.

N E X T : Rods, Cones, and Pixels