May 27, 2011

From Lavas To Wagtails

natural color image (left) and color enhancement (right) processing by " rel="nofollow Henrik Bondo, Denmark

Inspired by yesterday's [/May+26%2C+2011 LPOD] that we should get medical researchers to figure out how to enhance our color vision,
although ordinary Earth scenes might be unbearably garish… I tried the same technique, as I have done earlier with
the Moon to enhance colors (in PhotoShop: Saturation 25%, repeated five times). These photos taken out of our win-
dow towards the little pond shows a wagtail, who uses a large part of each day to hunt for delicious insects living at
the pond. The feathers of the wagtail are really black-grey-white in striking contrasts (left photo). The right photo - the
result of forefront medical research - shows simply the colors of greedy hunger. One can clearly see how the greed in
the eyes of the wagtail, looking for more food, transforms the surroundings to a vibrating, intensely colored landscape,
and how the greed even gives a fine reddish hue to specific hunting-relevant areas of this otherwise absolutely black
and white wagtail: The outer part of the wings and upper lip.

" rel="nofollow Henrik Bondo
Note from Chuck: This is a lovely experiment that demonstrates how supersaturation can bring out color variations too
subtle to be seen otherwise. I wonder if wagtails or other animals in their environment can detect the reddish hue, and
if it has a significance?

Related Links
Henrik's " rel="nofollow observatory

---