This morning, I saw a video of a rig with different colors on it being soaked into the water from 0 to 155 feet depth. In the video, I saw how the colors gradually get faded as the cameraman dived deeper and deeper.
According to scubadiving.com, this is because as we descend deeper, water filters out colors. “Color loss occurs gradually because water absorbs different wavelengths of light at different degrees. The longer the wavelength, the lower the energy. These wavelengths get absorbed first. The order in which colors are absorbed is the order in which they appear in a rainbow: red goes first, with violet going second-to-last and ultraviolet being last to disappear. You may have noticed that the neon-pink cap (which has ultraviolet light) is vibrant throughout the whole video, even after the red cap has changed completely.”
There are several applications for this. For example, when you go swimming with kids, you might want to get them some orange/pink neon colors to better identify them underwater for safety reasons. Or when you do underwater photoshoots, you should pick outfits that make you stand out. When editing those photos, you can apply several filters and special effects to improve the colors and saturation level of the picture. However, when you go exploring and want to minimize your appearance as much as possible, you should consider wearing dark-colored swimsuits.
Trang "Tee" Nguyen 