Although modern cameras can, with skill and good conditions, produce photographs nearly indistinguishable from the original scene, this fidelity relies on the limitations of human vision. According to the trichromatic theory, humans perceive light as a mixture of three colors, which can be recorded and represented by cameras, displays, and color printing; a spectrometer, however, can detect a clear distance between the three colors present in a photograph and the wide range of spectra in the original scene. By contrast, one of the earliest color photography methods, Lippmann plates , captured not just true color, but true spectra. A Lippmann plate, as [Jon Hilty] details , starts with a layer of photographic gel containing extremely fine silver halide crystals over the back of a glass plate. This layer is placed on top of a mirror, traditionally a mercury bath, and put in the camera.…