Why does green look white?

[stepheno]

This is a specific question regarding the traffic light in this shot. It is obvious that it is on "green" yet the lens of the traffic light appears white. Any thoughts or is it just the vagaries of light interpretation. TIA.

regards

 

[SammyC]

It could be that it's started to clip the green value at those pixels which would wash out the green. Its a form of blown highlight but only in one colour.

I.e. should be (RGB) 100, 100, 400 but clips to 100, 100, 255 in 8bit colour space?

 

[mrgubby]

Yup , the green is overexposed , blowing out nearly all the green colour information .

 

[stepheno]

Well - thats a new one, blown green highlights. Thanks for the explanation.

regards