alt Hacker News> we are most sensitive to red light
> green does indeed overwhelmingly contribute to perceptual luminance
so... if luminance contribution is different from "sensitivity" to you - what do you imply by sensitivity?
> we are most sensitive to red light
> green does indeed overwhelmingly contribute to perceptual luminance
so... if luminance contribution is different from "sensitivity" to you - what do you imply by sensitivity?
Upon further reading, I think I am wrong here. My confusion was that I read that over 60% of the cones in ones eye are "red" cones (which is a bad generalization), and there is more nuance here.
Given equal power red, blue, or green light hitting our eyes, humans tend to rate green "brighter" in pairwise comparative surveys. That is why it is predominant in a perceptual luminance calculation converting from RGB.
Though there are much more L-cones (which react most strongly to "yellow" light, not "red", also "much more" varies across individuals) than M-cones (which react most strongly to a "greenish cyan"), the combination of these two cones (which make ~95% of the cones in the eye) mean that we are able to sense green light much more efficiently than other wavelengths. S-cones (which react most strongly to "purple") are very sparse.