Color Science Quiz: Metamerism, CRI and Color Accuracy

Master the complex world of color reproduction. This quiz explores metamerism, spectral sensitivity, color rendering index (CRI), and why colors can look different under different lights or on different devices.

Quiz 32: Color Science, Spectral Issues, and Metamerism

Metamerism means:

Two different spectra appear the same color under one light but not another

Noise increases with ISO

Diffraction softens images

AF misses focus

Why can a product look different in store vs home?

Lens distortion

Different illuminant spectra causing metamerism

Shutter speed difference

File format

CRI is a measure of:

Sharpness

Color rendering quality of a light source

ISO performance

Dynamic range

LED lights can cause odd color because:

They always have perfect spectra

Many have spiky spectral distributions

They reduce megapixels

They force JPEG

A camera's color filter array affects:

Exposure only

How spectra are sampled into RGB channels

Shutter sync

Focus breathing

"White balance" cannot fix:

Warm/cool shifts

Green/magenta shifts

Spectral gaps that distort certain pigments

Exposure errors

A color checker is used to:

Increase ISO

Provide known reference patches for profiling

Improve autofocus

Remove vignetting

Rendering intent matters most when:

Shooting RAW

Converting wide gamut colors to smaller gamut outputs

Using manual focus

Using flash sync

If skin tones look sickly under fluorescents, a good first step is:

Raise ISO

Correct WB and adjust green/magenta tint

Use f/22

Convert to JPEG

Camera profiling typically changes:

Lens focal length

Color mapping and tone response

Shutter speed

AF modes

Gamut clipping happens when:

Exposure is low

Output space cannot represent a color

ISO is high

Shutter is slow

A common best practice for web images is:

ProPhoto JPEG

sRGB export

No profile embedded

RAW upload

D65 refers to:

A lens type

A standard daylight illuminant reference

A shutter speed

A focus mode

"Tint" controls:

Exposure

Green-magenta balance

Depth of field

Motion blur

Spectral sensitivity differences mean two cameras can:

Always match perfectly

Render the same scene with different colors even with same WB

Have identical profiles always

Only differ in sharpness

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