[Tig] color in microscopy

[dcorbitt77 at comcast.net]

Hi Rob,

Color is a physical perception of the reflected or transmitted energies in the approximately 400 nm to 700 nm or so band of wavelengths of  electromagnetic energy or visible light. Since many of the objects in the images are far smaller than the wavelengths of visible light, then the "color" of these objects becomes a somewhat meaningless issue. The objects must be considerably larger than the wavelengths of the visible spectrum to reflect or interact in any way with that light and be perceived as color. I think we can safely assume that all the color information in these images is "made up" to convey other information such as texture or contrast to make it intuitively easy for the mind to interpret.

Dave Corbitt


> On Feb 16, 2008, at 8:20 PM, Bob Friesenhahn wrote: 
> 
> > 
> > I pity the poor Colorist who has to assure accurate color for such 
> > material. It seems important that the Colorist have real-world 
> > experience with the subject matter. It is difficult for the Colorist 
> > to have real-world experience with such nanoscopic objects outside of 
> > the sniffles and sneezes that they may cause. 
> 
> Yes the word "accurate" is not necessarily appropriate when 
> you're observing things not visible to the naked eye, yet it 
> can be important for astronomers, so why not for 
> microscopists and nanoscopists.. But there could be a new 
> world of art based on nanoscopy, if that's a word, as seems 
> exhibited by these new images; nanometric films shot of 
> molecular or atomic processes.. though I think by definition 
> anything at the quantum level would be unobtainable. 
> 
> When a colorist works with images as art, the rules of 
> accuracy fly out the window, if you get the innuendo.