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Steve Mould 30 Apr 2026 50 here now

You've Never Seen a Real Photo

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Lippmann Plates are a forgotten colour photography technique

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Comments (20)

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@ken830 From YouTube ↗ 21 May 2026 30
Yellow was a bad example because most print material does have yellow dye/ink (CMYK) so we do get yellow wavelengths from most prints to our eyes. Screens use RGB, so that' why your spectrometer on your phone screen only shows those wavelengths. Should've been more clear there.
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@oktc68 From YouTube ↗ 21 May 2026 8
The tiny groove thing is used by watchmakers, handsets and hour markers of some watches are finely grooved to give the rainbow effect. Brilliant video, thanks.
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Chameleon - "I'm not changing color until you brush your teeth man!"
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One thing you overlooked right at the start of the video, when you were looking at a picture of a Banana. Printers typically use subtractive color, with Magenta, Cyan, Yellow and Black as the base colors to subtract away from the White of the paper.
As such, even if the base data was encoded in RGB, a printer will print this with Yellow ink which will reflect a broad (and continuous) range of wavelengths that include true yellow wavelengths of light.

Instead, you should have looked at a computer screen.
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@sdspivey From YouTube ↗ 21 May 2026 71
Spreading silicone on a CD, one of the more expensive ways to pirate music.
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1:24 our eyes CAN identify monochromatic yellow wavelength because both the green and red cones are stimulated, that is how we see the colour of a yellow banana irl. A yellow banana on a screen is also perceived as yellow because of red and green wavelengths from the pixels. But it doesnt mean red cones are stimulated only by red wavelength or green cones are stimulated only by green wavelength.
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Back in the early 2000s one of Qualcomm's many abandoned tech efforts was their Mirasol display that used an interferometric mechanism to reflect white light into a desired color. They still used the sub pixel approach as it was easier to have the color just turn on and off rather than having to dial in the exact amount of distortion to create a random color. All kinds of drawbacks meant it never saw wide adoption but was still a fun idea.
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@3:09 I laughed too much at the sudden appearance of the chameleon on his shoulder.
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So it sounds like a chameleon changing colors is just a flex ...
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At 13:55 Steve says RBG took over while he's showing an example of CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black). RBG is additive color (for instance LED's in a phone screen). CMYK is subtractive color, each pigment absorbs (subtracts) a color. Cyan pigment absorbs red. Magenta pigment absorbs green. Yellow pigment absorbs blue.
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The timing of the chameleon changing its gaze exactly to where Steve is pointing at 18:01, is impeccable
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I find it very rare to watch an educational youtube video where 99% of it is new and interesting information. Thank you for this video!
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@i_am_wes From YouTube ↗ 21 May 2026 1300
missed opportunities.
Yellow light should be measured in bananometers.
The CD used was Steve's mold.
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If you pour liquid chocolate onto a diffraction grating then freeze it, when you peel off the grating you will have holographic chocolate. It’s fun and fairly easy to make this for parties. People are always hesitant to eat a hologram at first, until you explain to them that there’s no dye involved, just pure, delicious chocolate.
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Don't try to hide it, Steve. We know you made this video just so you could play with some chameleons
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[Steve breaths on a chameleon]
Chameleon: WTF DUDE?
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@NittWitt From YouTube ↗ 21 May 2026 3600
The chameleon didn't change color! --It must have reptile dysfunction... ;)
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@leguile1 From YouTube ↗ 21 May 2026 1900
BROMINE AND MERCURY?! I need to see Nile Red make this from popcorn.
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@jonhilty7434 From YouTube ↗ 21 May 2026 2500
“Exposures can run into minutes” Man, if only I could get such blazing speeds all the time - most of those flower shots were multi-hour endeavors
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@SteveMould From YouTube ↗ 21 May 2026 3400
The chameleon is still on my head and I intend to keep it that way.