Below is a photograph of a pink oriental poppy. The second and third images are enlarged sections of the same photograph: they have not been manipulated in any other way.
What colour is the poppy?
How many different shades can be identified?
Which of these is the ‘real’ colour of the poppy?
What colour is the poppy?
Louis' Page 
Good question! It always surprises me how much effect light has in changing the colours it falls on – it can make taking pictures of flowers quite tricky if you want to catch their ‘real’ colour. These petals are reflecting light with patches of shade. My suggestion is rose gold with peach and hints of lilac.
I like your response Susan. Clearly light is the significant factor although the bleaching and ageing of individual petals are also important. Interestingly, the slightest movement of the viewer produces a different pattern of shades
I’m trying to visualise the the palette you suggest!
I was thinking of the iPhone rose gold colour.
I like what you’re doing here, Louis. So many pinks! The shadows appear cool, a more lilac pink, but there’s a pigmented area that’s very warm and peachy. You could say the brightest highlights are just about wihte, but really, even those are decidedly pink. Overall it’s certainly a delicate, blush type of pink, a pleasure to get lost in.
You have described the appearance of the flower quite beautifully but, however hard we try, it seems impossible to capture the ‘pinkyness’ of the flower and the feeling it evokes in the viewer, don’t you think?
In an ultimate sense, yes. But the fact that we keep trying shows that we are moved, even if it’s never quite as strongly as it would be if we were there in person.