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Yellow versus Green - Which color is more visible to the eye?

Newb2Lasers

Newb2Lasers

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I got this answer from a person:
Yellow and green are right in the middle of the spectrum's wavelengths, therefore, our eyes are most sensitive to these colors making them the easiest to see. This is even true for people who are colour-blind.
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Can someone clarify?
Honestly I always thought green was the winner..
 





Green is the winner, but yellow is a close second. The peak is 555nm, and yellow being 589/593.5, it's fairly close.
 
bloompyle, I thought I read somewhere that peak visibility shifts when it is darker.

I may be mistaken though.
 
Machinist Joe said:
bloompyle, I thought I read somewhere that peak visibility shifts when it is darker.

I may be mistaken though.
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That may be true, but I've read [in the 515nm and 556/561nm threads] that peak is 555. I've also seen it on graphs, so I'm willing to place my chips on 555.
 
Photopic peak is 555nm (well lit conditions)

Scotopic peak is 507nm (dark conditions)

Luminosity.png


Lase
 
Yep, lase nailed it.

Though there are also medical conditions where the photosensitive pigments in the eyes are mutated and respond with a different peak than is indicated above for the normal populace. These individuals see color differently and often can see extended ranges of the spectrum than others. There are also medical conditions where one or more of the pigments is inactive or missing and these people cannot see certain colors or see less of the spectrum than normal populace. The first group notice no detriment to their vision, nothing "missing or wrong". The second group are often determined to be coloblind in some respect.
 
I've heard you can see the yellow farther from a greater distance during the day. It would make sense since the eye focuses longer wavelengths better and the yellow would stand out against green things like grass.
 
Sigurthr said:
Yep, lase nailed it.

Though there are also medical conditions where the photosensitive pigments in the eyes are mutated and respond with a different peak than is indicated above for the normal populace. These individuals see color differently and often can see extended ranges of the spectrum than others. There are also medical conditions where one or more of the pigments is inactive or missing and these people cannot see certain colors or see less of the spectrum than normal populace. The first group notice no detriment to their vision, nothing "missing or wrong". The second group are often determined to be coloblind in some respect.
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An example of this is me :P

I have very poor vision in the <500nm range but (after testing recently) I have very good vision in the 590-660 range. I can also see certain IR wavelengths better than most people. 808nm stands out to me quite well.

joeyss said:
I've heard you can see the yellow farther from a greater distance during the day. It would make sense since the eye focuses longer wavelengths better and the yellow would stand out against green things like grass.
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This would all depend on divergence, atmospheric conditions and personal eyesights. 532 and 593 would be fairly equal when taking background colour out of the equation, with a slight advantage to 532 for being closer to peak sensitivity.

Lase
 
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I remember i was taught in art class not to just splash a little yellow that wont belong as your eye would jump to that first every time. Its weird green doesnt do that, yet as light green is more vivid and visible.
 
For me i can clearly see any green laser beam, every green laser I've owned i saw the beam no problem, I've never had yellow because of the pricing :P
 
For me, 593.5 is brighter in photopic and mesopic conditions, and only in fully scotopic conditions does 532nm win out, but very slightly. I can see from 360nm to 850nm though and likely have mutated photosensitive retinal pigments.

And aye, that was a bit of a nod to ya, Lase. =)
 
Sigurthr said:
For me, 593.5 is brighter in photopic and mesopic conditions, and only in fully scotopic conditions does 532nm win out, but very slightly. I can see from 360nm to 850nm though and likely have mutated photosensitive retinal pigments.

And aye, that was a bit of a nod to ya, Lase. =)
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To me (and my skewed perception of colours) my 1-2mW 593.5 is equally as bright as a 20mW 532.

Also a little tidbit, my avatar I can barely see at all. It's a very washed out lilac colour to me

Lase
 
Lase said:
Also a little tidbit, my avatar I can barely see at all. It's a very washed out lilac colour to me

Lase
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Wow! Do you mean your actual avatar on the screen, or when you took the picture you couldn't see it?
 
yathern2 said:
Wow! Do you mean your actual avatar on the screen, or when you took the picture you couldn't see it?
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Both. My 405 laser is basically invisible to me (~150mW when it was new) and I haven't seen a 445 to compare but all these beamshots and raw output photos that are posted here are useless to me :D I have to adjust the colour to see them properly.

Lase
 
And to you lase, I can say the opposite. I have more of a skew toward the 400nm side I believe.
 
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