Warp wrote:
>   Naturally if two photons reflect from the surface and end up hitting the
> same image pixel, their brightness gets added, not averaged. There's no
> such a thing as "averaging photons" in nature.

Technically, there is, except you average them in a complex space (as in 
real+imaginary) instead of linearly.  ;-)   If you *really* wanna get 
physically correct.

> However, in specular reflection the reflected ray retains at least
> part of its own color and is not completely filtered by the surface's
> color. This is something which happens in nature.

Isn't that one of the things that makes a surface look metalic? That the 
reflected rays retain their own color because the photons are bouncing 
off the free valence electrons roaming around on the surface of the 
material, rather than hitting a bound electron in a particular "shell"?

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     Remember the good old days, when we
     used to complain about cryptography
     being export-restricted?

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