Why does chromatic aberration appear as purple/green in some images and red/cyan in others?
Asked 5/27/2016
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Chromatic aberration (CA) often shows up as purple on one side of a high-contrast edge and green on the other, but sometimes it appears red/cyan instead. Why do different color pairs show up? Is it simply because they are complementary colors, or does it depend on how the lens focuses different wavelengths? Could a lens also show blue/yellow fringing?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
10y ago
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When considering longitudinal CA, one must see the range of colors as a linear spectrum, rather than a circular color wheel. Infrared light with its very long wavelengths is on one end of the spectrum, ultraviolet with a very short wavelength is on the other. In between you have the visible spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet in that order.
If a lens is optimally focused for the center of the visible spectrum (green), then the colors closest to the extremes will be the most affected by longitudinal CA (red on one end, purple on the other). If the lens is focused more for the blue wavelengths then the red on the opposite end of the spectrum will be most prominent. If the lens is focused more for the yellow wavelengths, then the purple will show up more. If you are seeing a lot of red and purple CA, then you are probably seeing longitudinal CA.
With transverse CA it depends more on which colors are brightest in the scene. If you are noticing a lot of green CA, then you are probably seeing transverse CA.
Yellow and blue are closer to the middle of the visible spectrum on either side of green in the middle. It is not likely you would ever see that combination of any type of CA, and almost certainly unlikely to see longitudinal CA in that color combination.
Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user15871
10y ago
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The fringe colors are determined by how the lens focuses different wavelengths, not by the color wheel or “complementary” color pairs.
Because glass refracts different wavelengths by different amounts, red, green, and blue light do not all come to focus at exactly the same place. With longitudinal chromatic aberration, you can think in terms of the linear spectrum: red is at one end, violet/blue at the other, with green near the middle. If the lens is corrected best around green, the colors farthest from that point tend to show most strongly, often giving magenta/purple on one side of focus and green on the other. If the lens is biased differently, red/cyan can become more visible instead.
The apparent color also changes depending on whether the blur is in front of or behind the plane of focus, which is why one side of focus may look purple/violet and the other green.
So yes, other color combinations can occur in principle, including blue/yellow, but purple/green and red/cyan are common because of how camera sensors record color and how lenses are typically corrected.
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