Riddle me this.

[Jayst84]

Hi all, a little brain teaser for you if you've a few minutes to spare.

Firstly, here's a photo from an event I shot on the weekend. It's shot through a small window with a wire mesh built into the glass. From memory I'd guess the mesh was about 1cm square, maybe a bit less.

Taken with my 5D and 24-70 L at f/9 and 38mm

Now, here's the frame before taken at f/7.1 and 70mm.

So, the riddle, why, in the image with the shallower depth of field (from the wider aperture and the tighter framing) is the wire mesh 'reversed'? It appears that the wires are white and the space between is dark.

 

[Deleted member 49549]

Guessing here, but maybe a diffraction pattern? But most diffraction patterns that i remember have light and dark stripes.
Hmmm!

 

[Forbiddenbiker]

The mesh is smaller when it should be larger ...so is it a reflection of the mesh on another layer of glass in front of the mesh layer ...hence its the lit back of the mesh being reflected, not an image showing the shaded side like the first?

 

[Jayst84]

Thanks for the thoughts guys.

The window was a single pane of glass, and quite a thin one at that, so I'm not sure it would be reflections. The surface was also fairly rippled like those old bathroom windows.

I was thinking some kind of refraction around the wires, but it doesn't seem to quite add up. Being shot at an oblique angle you'd think the effect would vary across the frame.