- #1
Molydood
- 119
- 0
Why is "silver" perceived as "grey" in colour?
I think we can probably agree that grey would be the closest approximation to the colour of reflective surfaces.
I am guessing this is similar to the way in which auto exposure works on cameras in that they assume that the entire scene will be 18% grey overall (because the 'average' tone ends up thereabouts for most pictures if you consider every pixel)
I am thinking diffuse silver more than anything, but even super shiny things like mirrors and metallic objects fall into this category of looking a bit "grey" and I can only think it is for the same reason in that our eyes don’t focus on the individual elements relecting off a mirror, but instead average the tone of the object to about 18% grey. If you focus on individual reflections it may look less grey, but if you glance at a shiny object, I reckon grey would be my brains first thoughts, and that is the only reason I can think why.
Is this true?
I think we can probably agree that grey would be the closest approximation to the colour of reflective surfaces.
I am guessing this is similar to the way in which auto exposure works on cameras in that they assume that the entire scene will be 18% grey overall (because the 'average' tone ends up thereabouts for most pictures if you consider every pixel)
I am thinking diffuse silver more than anything, but even super shiny things like mirrors and metallic objects fall into this category of looking a bit "grey" and I can only think it is for the same reason in that our eyes don’t focus on the individual elements relecting off a mirror, but instead average the tone of the object to about 18% grey. If you focus on individual reflections it may look less grey, but if you glance at a shiny object, I reckon grey would be my brains first thoughts, and that is the only reason I can think why.
Is this true?