Why You Can't Take a Good Picture of a Rainbow

Cloud Iridescence?

https://scijinks.gov/rainbow-clouds/

Why not the same way a color TV works?

A <...colo[u]r TV works...> using the additive colo[u]rs of red, green and blue.

A wet chemistry image uses the subtractive colo[u]r complements of cyan, magenta and yellow, for which #3⇓ applies.

In wet photography the colour chemistry of the subtractive filters (cyan/magenta/yellow) doesn't extend far enough to enable the indigo and violet to be accurately reproduced.

_{No information to hand about digital imaging.}

https://www.rapidtables.com/web/color/RGB_Color.html

Try 75, 0,130 for indigo

and 148,0,211 for violet

The whole point about RGB and CMYK is that you can make all colours.

OK, I don't know about photographing a rainbow, but I can't figure out this one, either.

This is a picture of one of my JetSkis, taken with a cell phone. Notice the orange registration sticker. At least, it's orange in real life, and in the reflection. However, it appears to be black & white in the direct image.

Any thoughts?

Then this is a discussion about the perceived colo[u]r, not the measured colo[u]r, which enters into the domain of how the brain works.

• Try staring for a long time at something that is exclusively one colo[u]r that fills the field of vision, and then look away and see what happens.

I don't think this is a problem of perception

Of course Steve45 could do a better version of this, which might give us more clues.

Steve I've given you a GA though of course its a good question.

I wasn't sure how large a picture I could post, so I went with a relatively low resolution. In this photo, I've cut out just the area of interest and have posted it with a higher resolution.

Hope this helps.

Are boat stickers the same as car plate yearly stickers. They have a weird reflective property. Probably for the authorities to tell if the sticker is counterfeit or not.

They don't appear to be anything other than two solid colors printed on a white vinyl background. The color portion doesn't sparkle or have any 'metalflake' properties that you can see.

Maybe the sticker appears too bright for the camera in the sunlight. The camera adjusts for the whole picture. The reflection is attenuated and you get the true color.

http://www.mdavid.com.au/photography/washedout.shtml

(Just a guess)

If the camera were to have adjusted for the whole picture then the colo[u]r recorded will be different to/than the colo[u]r received.