Have Hue Lost Your Mind?

Pop Quiz!

And no cheating...

True or False: Dogs are colorblind.

Most of us most likely heard this myth before. And I hope you chose false because that is the correct answer. Yep, according to Dr. Cynthia Carlson, in an article on MSNBC's website, dogs can, in fact, see in color. The difference between dogs and humans is that dogs cannot readily distinguish between colors. Dr. Carlson briefly notes that

"Dogs’ eyes have receptors for blue and green shades, but not for red shades. As a result, it appears that dogs cannot easily distinguish between yellow, green and red, but they can identify different shades of blue, purple and gray"

...um okay, and chewing gum doesn't stay in your stomach for 7 years either, but what's the point?

Well, being able to distinguish between colors demonstrates how well you see hues, in other words, measures your color vision. Hue is just a fancy term to refer to a pure color name- like red or blue. In Photoshop and other image editing software, you have the ability to change the hues on your photos. It is usually given on a color scale or spectrum.

An example of a change in hues is like how you can tell the difference between an unripe mango and one that's ready to eat. Yumm...

Or if you're like me, you probably used the color picker in MS Paint or Word at some point or another and didn't pay much attention to it. Somewhere around that color spectrum displays a HSL or HSB (Hue, Saturation, Luminosity/Brightness) scale. Hue and saturation are commonly categorized together or one followed by the other, but it is not to be confused as interchangeable terms. Both are color balancing tools but change in saturation depends on the intensity of a single color from grey, while change in hues is across different colors.

Knowing your color vision and ability to see color variations across images will definitely come in handy when shooting in the same location but during different seasons. This would also be useful when shooting scenes with rich natural colors, like at beaches or gardens.

Of course, a little visual wouldn't hurt to have...

Original Photo

Hue change by 90

Hue change by -180

It's amazing how colors can affect our moods, appetites, and even how we think. All these, essentially, can also affect (or possibly distort) the outcome of our photos and the meaning we want to express through them.

Notice the hue scale on the right-hand side. 

Maybe I'm the only one, but these hue changes kind of remind me the colorful 70s era... but I could just be happy, hmm.

Oh, I'm sorry I forgot to mention I am using my Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 from now on. I don't want to confuse anyone since I didn't mention it previously and it completely slipped my mind. By the way, I'm loving it so far. There's sooo much more options than in Express Editor that I feel like I can actually experiment freely.

Anyhow...

Ready to challenge yourself? Take this hue test. Let me know how you score.

Oh, oh thank you DIY Photography for introducing me to a new way to kill time.

And not to toot my own horn or anything but check out the screen shot below... =)

Remember when it's all said and done, there's more than what meets the eye...