Brown and green camouflage is for forested terrain. Shades of brown and tan is for desert. What is the point of black/white/gray camouflage?
Snow. Alpine/arctic.
Snow covered forest.
Makes sense. I’d thought of snow, but the gray and white didn’t make sense – didn’t think it through to “snowy forest.” :smack:
Thanks.
No, Urban Warfare.
Unless it is overwhelmingly white.
http://www.predatorcamo.com/patterns.html
Note the “fall gray” and “winter white” patterns.
Pure white would only work well in a completely snow-covered landscape, without exposed rocks, trees, or bushes.
Cool pix – thanks, Colibri! (BTW, read that book you recommended on the coevolution of birds and fruit in the topics – very interesting! Thanks for that tip as well.)
Could twickster post a link to what it looks like?
There are many samples at the bottom of this page. Which one were you asking about?
Oops, sorry – I thought Bosda was making a joke, I didn’t realize there really was such a category. (Hell of a universe we live in, isn’t it?)
It could have been either Colibri’s “predator winter white” or silenus’s “city” – I saw it on a young man walking along a (tree-lined, residential) city street this morning as I was waiting at a light, and didn’t examine it carefully. Clearly the young man was wearing it as a fashion statement – I just started wondering whether there was an actual camouflage purpose to such a pattern, or whether it was an adaptation of a “real” pattern translated into black/white/gray for, well, fashion purposes.
You’re welcome. I’m glad you liked the book.
I used to have some BDUs in what was listed as “subdued urban” - two or three shades of medium/dark gray and black. Good for blending into a bus stop. 
Of course, then there are the novelty schemes. Standard woodland patters, but in bright yellow/orange/brown or black/white/purple? I suspect there’s nothing those would blend into.
The factory where I worked had everything painted teal up to about waist level and white above that. One day, I saw a time-study man dressed in teal pants and a white shirt. I didn’t spot him until he moved.
Also you have to remember that the main purpose of camo isn’t to look like the surroundings so much as to break up your outline.
Check out these pics of WW1 ships here.
They weren’t exactly blending into the background, but the design allowed for confusion. (It explains the concept in detail in the site).
Now look at these tanks http://www.emlra.org/articles/berlin_brigade.htm. Straight lines, yet the tank in the second pic blends in really well. The shapes used are designed to trick they eyes preception of light/shadows.
Im guessing that this is the purpose of street camo colours too.
I thought the idea behind bright or “day-glo” orange as part of a camouflage color scheme was that animals are color blind. Animals can’t see you and your fellow hunters will see you and won’t shoot. However, I will yield the point to any real hunters out there.