After driving through the Texas hill country we continued through the barren west of Texas and the equally barren southeast of New Mexico to Carlsbad. The next morning we went early to Carlsbad Caverns. For much of our hour and a half below the surface in the Big Room, we were alone - a wonderful enhancement of an already amazing experience.
The Big Room is mainly dark, with strategically placed lights - tungsten, fluorescent, and mercury vapor - to emphasize the colors as well as the shapes and textures of the formations. The effect on color of the different lights is subtle to the eye, but the camera captures the differences in an exaggerated way, as illustrated in the photo below.
(Click to enlarge)
For some formations, black and white seemed a more suitable rendition.
Over the next few days I'll be showing some other experiments with false color renditions.
(Click to enlarge)
