Many coral reef fish are assumed to be conspicuous in their natural environment due to their bold and distinct colour patterns. However there have been few attempts to quantify the conspicuousness of coral reef fish under natural photic conditions. In this study, the effects of incident light and background conditions on the potential conspicuousness of four species of Hawaiian reef fish (Chaetodon auriga, Labroides phthirophagus, Thalassoma duperrey, Zebrasoma flavescens) were examined. The optical properties of water, coral and fish colour patterns were measured with an underwater spectroradiometer. Potential conspicuousness was quantified by calculating luminance (brightness) contrast and spectral (colour) contrast within fish colour patterns, and between patterns and natural backgrounds, i.e. water and coral. Under different illuminating and background conditions, the contrast from these fishes was highly variable. Different incident light conditions resulted in significant differences in inherent spectral contrast for L. phthirophagus. All fish had significantly different luminance contrast when the optical properties of the water backgrounds varied. Against coral backgrounds, T. duperrey and Z. flavescens had significantly different luminance contrast and L. phthirophagus and T. duperrey had significantly different spectral contrast. These results have important implications for theories on the adaptive significance of reef fish coloration since the conspicuousness of reef fish appears to be highly dependant on local photic conditions and therefore, some colour patterns may not be conspicuous in the wild as is often presumed.