Pooua wrote:
http://web.mit.edu/neltnerb/www/artwork/index.html features artwork
illuminated by super-bright LEDs, but the photos do not accurately
reflect the colors of the lighting. The artist says that his camera
has trouble picking up the purple lighting, instead showing it washed
out, apparently because it is outside the normal color space of the
imaging sensor. Does that sound likely? What might a photographer do
to take better photos of these tricky lighting situations?


I think the reason is, that NO combination of RGB used in sensors can
produce violet (purple?) light. The visible color spectrum is ROYGBV.
All colors between R and B can be generated by mixing appropriate
amounts of R, G, and B. But Violet is a shorter wavelength than any of
the frequencies captured by an RGB sensor. So no combination of longer
wave lengths can produce a shorter wavelength.
You can't fix it with Photoshop either because PS also uses an RGB
palette (e.g. Adobe RGB).
Bob Williams