[pct-l] Hiking Colors

[dsaufley at sprynet.com (dsaufley@sprynet.com)]

WOW!!!  Who knew ('cept you)!  Thanks, Steady.  

L-Rod

-----Original Message-----
>From: Rod Belshee <rbelshee@hotmail.com>
>Sent: Dec 30, 2005 12:28 PM
>To: pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net
>Subject: [pct-l] Hiking Colors
>
>Regarding the question of which is the most visible color...this is a fun 
>topic. There are several elements that interact in interesting ways...
>
>Human eye:
>
>In daylight, the cone-vision of the human eye is most sensitive to 
>yellow-green. That is, it has a higher response to a given amount of 
>yellow-green radiation than the same amount of radiation of other 
>wavelengths. The eye responds to all colors from reds through blue-violets, 
>although diminished at each end of the spectrum.
>
>At night, the response curve peak for rod-vision shifts a bit further away 
>from yellow to pure green, and the range narrows sharply. In particular the 
>reds virtually disappear (a red apple may appear black while a green one is 
>still quite light gray).
>
>The object:
>
>Generally objects produce a color by reflecting some colors of light and 
>absorbing others. We see what is reflected. A white object reflects most 
>everything, a black object absorbs most everything. A very pure green object 
>in white light reflects the greens and absorbed the red-orange-yellow, and 
>blue-violet. A pale green objects reflects most of the greens, plus some of 
>the rest of the colors.
>
>The light:
>
>The color of the light matters because the object is just reflecting or 
>absorbing the colors that shine on it. In a pure red light, an a red apple 
>is red and a green one black. In a pure green light, the red apple is black 
>and the green one is green. Early and late daylight has more reds and less 
>blues (the blues are more readily absorbed in the atmosphere, and the low 
>angle sun causes the light to travel through more air). The color of 
>lighting is significant indoors or in photography, but less so for hiking.
>
>Flourescent:
>
>It gets a bit trickier when we add in flourescent colors. That is neat 
>trick. An object absorbs wavelengths of one color and then emits it as a 
>different wavelength, say yellow or dayglow orange. That is how some things 
>seem so incredibly bright --if you measured it you would find there is more 
>orange reflected off the object that shown on it in the first place! Cool 
>trick.
>
>Visual perception:
>
>Combining this together, what is the brightest color? Well, strictly 
>speaking it is white --that means that all of the light is reflected back 
>and seen, so it is brightest.
>
>Think of vision as consisting of three components: brightness, color, and 
>saturation. The brightness is the total amount reponse to all of the light, 
>the color is the predominate wavelength of the light, and the saturations is 
>the purity of that color. For example, the bright pure green object is 
>highly saturated (the object absorbed everything except green) and a muddy 
>green object is poorly saturated (other colors are reflected with the 
>green).
>
>So, what's the brightest color for hiking gear?
>- of course, white if the brightest color and black the darkest.
>
>Within colored objects, what are brightest?
>- during the day, a light yellow-green pack or jacket will appear brighter 
>than other colored objects,
>- at night, a light green tent is easier to find, while reds are very dark,
>- but the brightest of all are the flourescent day-glow yellows and oranges.
>
>Most visible:
>
>Then there is the question of most visible, meaning easiest to distinguish 
>from the background. In the lush northwest coastal forests, a green jacket 
>will dissappear because it is the same color as everything else. A dark tent 
>might be easier to find on a brightly lit night in the open on light-colored 
>rocks.
>
>The human retina heightens the difference between opposite colors. Generally 
>you can look at opposites more vvisible: wear red in the green northwest 
>forests, wear green on the red rocks, wear blue in the partched yellow 
>sands, wear yellow on blue water. Again, the eye is more sensitive to some 
>colors than others, so in a dark green forest, the red can be enhanced by 
>shifting a bit closer to the middle of the spectrum such as orange.
>
>And of course patterns also play a role, hence the camo patterns which 
>combine shapes of various shades of background color.
>
>Even more important is motion, since the eye responds extremely well to 
>motion. If you want to hide from an animal, first and foremost FREEZE even 
>in out in the open. Also deny the animal patterns that it is very adepts at 
>picking out, such as eyes. If you want to find your tent at night, tie your 
>bandana on it to flop in the breeze (even better you might hear it!).
>
>And then there is culture. In most cultures we learn to respond quickly to 
>red and less to blue (even if the strength of reponse from the eye is 
>equivalent), and perhaps there is even hard wiring in the visual cortex that 
>cuases this.
>
>Of course we can also complicate this by talking about the relative merit of 
>blue automobile headlights versus white, but that brings up a whole bunch of 
>other issues, which are not trail related...
>
>There, is all clear now?
>
>As you can see, there are factoids that can be used to back up most any 
>argument anyone would want to make.
>
>For visible colors, you can argue which color the eye is most responsive to 
>during the day (yellow-green) or during the night (green), which are 
>brighter (white), which stand out from the trail environment best (all 
>depends: maybe reds or blues), which are conditioned to reponded (red), or 
>add in tricksters (flourescent yellows and oranges).
>
>Or to be less visible, you can argue for colors that are not bright (black), 
>not bright at night (red, violet), culturally unresponsive (blue), or blend 
>into the trail environment (all depends: maybe greens/grays/beige).
>
>So just pick your favorite color and then argue that that one is the best! 
>CYOH!
>
>Steady Sr.
>
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