Scott # 479 - Red Over Black.

Hi guys..It has always been hard to distinguish if the Scott # 479 has "RED over BLACK" or has "BLACK over RED"...Take a look at these pictures...I drained out the black to get a good look at the satellite dish and the weather main...Now looking at the normal stamp it is hard to tell which is which, but with the black removed you can see as per the arrows that the RED is over the BLACK...Do you agree...???

My friend Wert,
In looking at your original image, I do not agree. I see no red over black.

Moving on to your manipulated image; we seem to be wanting to make z axis decisions based upon 2D images. This is a stretch and whether we are talking about cancelations or ink applied to a stamp manipulating a 2d image is not going to give you much help in understanding 'layers' in a z axis direction. Depth (z axis) can be difficult to determine even in a normal image. For example consider this image clouds and the moon. The dark cloud on the left appears to be passing behind the moon! (Obviously this cannot be true, the moon is 238,900 miles from the earth.)


Here I have inversed the color palette and it makes a stronger case for saying that the cloud has indeed passed behind the moon.


Note how the algorithm does not show any cloud in front of the moon. So as you can see 2D images can easily fool our eyes when it comes to determining depth.


About 12 years ago we had a $18,000 computer graphics card and 3d monitor. This setup allowed us to add layers to images and then the layers would be displayed on the monitor with depth (no special glasses needed!). While a neat effect the depth completely depended upon how we added the layers; manipulating the layers change how the depth was perceived.

We could do the same thing with the image of your stamp even without the special equipment. We could split the color channels in your stamp image into layers and then 'stack' them back in any order we want. Software and computers are fun but we have to be careful in how we apply them.
Respectfully yours,
don

I think it is pretty obvious to me. Here is my own 479 and 479iii:



One is black, the other is red. So a good magnifier glass should let you see if red is over or not. Looking at yours compared to my picture, I am guessing that you have a nice 479 black over red.

Is it an optical illusion or does the first "O" in "METEOROLOGY" look larger than the last one?

Maybe I'm colour blind,but for the life of me I see dark blue
but no black.

At least I'm not seeing red

I am with lithograving in that I see blue also. But I think Wert has something with his O's! Have you tried measuring them?

Peter

Wt1,
Do you mean the first "O" in Wert's original image or the image with the colors inverted? In the image he processed the "O" is larger, but this is the result of the software 'averaging' algorithm.
don

Actually, I "think" I see it in both examples ... but as I said at the outset, maybe it's just an optical illusion.

Are you saying the processed image shows the first "O" larger? If so, then maybe I'm not just seeing things!

wt1...I believe you are right...Look at these pictures and the first "O" is above and below the line..More so than the other "O's".