'Maya blue': The mystery dye recreated two centuries after it was lost • Hacker News Board

Re: 'Maya blue': The mystery dye recreated two centuries after it was lost

#21

Post by dylan604 » Sat, Dec 07, 2024, 1:28 AM UTC

throwup238 wrote: post #19

altairprime wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hands are typically an excellent gray reference for photography, ensuring that the captured photos represent the color accurately given the photographer’s platform constraints. Hands also help the human brain correct for variations in lighting, color profiles, monitor calibration, and so on. Showing the dye color on skin ensures the highest fidelity conveyance of the hue to the reader possible without control over ho…

To add to this: the RGB colorspace reproducible by modern displays is limited compared to the full colorspace that humans can see so when photographing pigments, photographers need a proper reference for color correction. Wikipedia says the CIELCh of Maya blue is (76, 66, 238°) which is at the edge of the RGB colorspace. Depending on purity and composition, the real pigment might be just outside the range, so for a v…

>photographers need a proper reference for color correction

easily solved with a chip chart. they even have them "pocket" sized.

Re: 'Maya blue': The mystery dye recreated two centuries after it was lost

#22

Post by cbanek » Sat, Dec 07, 2024, 1:51 AM UTC

I'm always amazed how we think a plant or animal has gone extinct, only to find it decades or centuries later. Life finds a way, and we're terrible at seeing it!

Re: 'Maya blue': The mystery dye recreated two centuries after it was lost

#23

Post by alwa » Sat, Dec 07, 2024, 3:04 AM UTC

oakwhiz wrote: post #6

dylan604 wrote: post #3

man, the photographer really was intrigued by his blue painted hand. surely, there could have been other examples of the pigment's use

Maybe this is partly because of Islamic aniconism.

Even though this is Al Jazeera, there are photos of iconic works further into the article. Masks, a bust, murals…

Re: 'Maya blue': The mystery dye recreated two centuries after it was lost

#24

Post by X--corner--X » Sat, Dec 07, 2024, 4:06 AM UTC

[flagged]

Re: 'Maya blue': The mystery dye recreated two centuries after it was lost

#25

Post by adrian_b » Sat, Dec 07, 2024, 10:19 AM UTC

Jun8 wrote: post #7

corinroyal wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blue pigments were just rare. There are very few natural ones and historically the synthetics have been costly and hard to produce, Han blue, Egyptian blue, Fra Angelico blue from lapiz... The later was so expensive it was mainly reserved for Mary's robes, so perhaps the spiritual association was due to expense. Fra Angelico blue is still expensive. 23,000 Euros a kilo from Kremer. Even new synthetic blues are expens…

Which triggers the next level question: Why are blue pigments in plants and animals rare? Quick answer: Unknown. https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/56476/why-are-so... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40797070#

Moreover, due to the scarcity of blue pigments or dyes in plants and animals (except indigo, which is found in many plants and also in some animals, e.g. in some snails), the vivid blue details that can be seen on many birds, insects or lizards, and also on the genitals or faces of a few monkeys, are not caused by pigments or dyes, but by optical interference or diffusion in thin transparent layers.

Many fruits and flowers contain blue organic compounds (anthocyanins), but those are useless for making dyes or pigments, because they are unstable and they loose their color very quickly.