How's your colour (color) vision?

[nigelrea]

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During a long video editing session, and waiting for a sequence to render I chatted to my editor about colour vision and how we see colours.

 

We decided to do a self test and a quick search on the net produced a site called Colorblind Homepage

 

Guess what? I could not see the the numbers and shapes in the Ishihara diagrams and circles although he could see them perfectly. I am apparently colour deficient although I think I see colours perfectly.

 

With 8% (up to one in 12 men) having a colour deficiency there may be hundreds of forum members out there unable to see colours correctly. How do we know we have the perfect images from our Leica glass?

 

So how many of us have checked their colour vision recently and does is really matter if we don't see things quite the same way?

 

Or should we just stick to B/W?

 

Nigel Rea

[hyper67]

That may be the case but I think I can I know when black is balck......

[Peter41951]

balck is the new magenta?

[Joseph S. Wisniewski]

During a long video editing session, and waiting for a sequence to render I chatted to my editor about colour vision and how we see colours.

 

We decided to do a self test and a quick search on the net produced a site called Colorblind Homepage

 

Guess what? I could not see the the numbers and shapes in the Ishihara diagrams and circles although he could see them perfectly. I am apparently colour deficient although I think I see colours perfectly.

I can still take a Farnsworth-Munsell color test (sort the colored discs by hue) the same way I did when I was a child and spooked the school optometrist. I look at the scrambled discs for a few seconds, sort the whole batch in order in my mind, then just move every disc to the correct position.

With 8% (up to one in 12 men) having a colour deficiency there may be hundreds of forum members out there unable to see colours correctly. How do we know we have the perfect images from our Leica glass?

 

So how many of us have checked their colour vision recently and does is really matter if we don't see things quite the same way?

 

Or should we just stick to B/W?

 

Nigel Rea

Good questions. I have no answers, aside from "ask someone with good color vision"

[nemeng]

Here's the direct link to the Ishihara Colour test, after following the links in the initial Colorvision Testing URL:

 

Take the Ishihara Color Vision Test

 

Passed easily (phew).

 

On a completely unrelated matter... I had amblyopia as a child, so I lack full binocular vision. My left eye is so dominant that it's practically the only one I use.

 

I never thought much about it, but after going online a decade ago, it was interesting to discover that there were many photographers/ painters with this condition. After all it sure makes it easy to pre-visualize a 2D image, as you naturally see things that way anyway :?)

 

FWIW Ted Grant (of LUG fame) also had amblyopia as a child. In the 1930s however the condition wasn't treated as his school didn't want him stigmatized. (Idiot children love to bully those who have to wear eye-patches for a year.) Subsequently he is almost blind in his right eye. Didn't hurt his long career as a Canadian photojournalist though, did it?...

[sean_reid]

I apparently have a rare medical condition that makes it difficult for me to see a magenta cast unless it has been previously identified. <G>

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

[Guest Arias]

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I apparently have a rare medical condition that makes it difficult for me to see a magenta cast unless it has been previously identified. <G>

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

Fine that you havn't lost your sense of humour.

greetings

H.

[LADP]

Seems to be perfect. I passed both of the above linked tests w/o any difficulty.

[Overgaard]

Well, I flunked totally. Nevertheless I managed to see the reddish and magentha cast on the very first M8 shots I saw.

 

I think aesthetics develop independent of your color vision.

 

Reminds me we have a blind comics drawer here in Denmark. He lost his sight when about 25-30 years old.

[Joseph S. Wisniewski]

On a completely unrelated matter... I had amblyopia as a child, so I lack full binocular vision. My left eye is so dominant that it's practically the only one I use.

Do you find that this makes a rangefinder uncomfortable to use? Especially a digital, as your nose would be pressing into the screen.

I never thought much about it, but after going online a decade ago, it was interesting to discover that there were many photographers/ painters with this condition. After all it sure makes it easy to pre-visualize a 2D image, as you naturally see things that way anyway :?)

Do not laugh; I teach the covering (but not the closing) of one eye as a visualization technique.

[farnz]

My left eye is so dominant that it's practically the only one I use.

 

I never thought much about it, but after going online a decade ago, it was interesting to discover that there were many photographers/ painters with this condition.

How about this thought:

1. the left eye is controlled by the right hemisphere of the brain

2. the right hemisphere of the brain is where creative thought occurs (versus rational, controlled thought in the left hemisphere)

3. perhaps predominant use of the left eye helps to stimulate the creative process.

[MJLogan]

Having just been to the optometrist to be fitted for bifocals (middle age strikes!), I can happily report that my color vision is still as excellent as it has always been. On the other hand, because of the nature of the difference between my left and right eye strength, I cannot see 3-D effects with 3-D glasses.

 

I worked for many years as a magazine art director, and was amused one day to find that we were all being lined up and tested for colorblindness. One of the other art directors had approved a cover with a ghastly color problem which--surprise--he could not detect. Tens of thousands of dollars were involved.

[MrEd]

I once saw my mother-in-law in underwear, almost went blind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[nemeng]

Left-eye shooting a pain

 

And how. Luckily I don't spend much time with my eye at the viewfinder (street photography, VR shooting with a fisheye etc.)

 

 

Left-eye, right brain etc.

 

I don't think this is the case. That TG and I both have weak right eyes is just coincidence. I am convinced however that in my case, eye treatment during childhood forced me to really look at things. Most seven year olds spend their time goofing off, whereas I spent a year learning to "see". Left-eye covered for a month: "Look at all the colours!" Right-eye covered for a month: "OMG, I can count the hairs on Nicola's arm, five seats away..."

 

 

Colour blindness and designers

 

In the 1990s I worked on a project with a HTML designer who was severely colour blind. Nice guy, but he got dropped very quickly when the higher-ups realized. I always thought it was odd that he insisted on sticking with a career with which he was obviously unsuited. I mean, how many 160kg ballet dancers do you see?...

[ceflynn]

I ruined an art historian's day with this experiment:

 

Shine a halogen lamp at a clean piece of white paper. Look at the paper surface with both eyes, then close one eye for a few seconds, open it, and close the other eye. Are the two images equally bright, and is the color balance the same? One of my eyes shows the paper very slightly dimmer and pinker than the other.

[Bob Ross]

 

Passed easily (phew).

 

On a completely unrelated matter... I had amblyopia as a child, so I lack full binocular vision. My left eye is so dominant that it's practically the only one I use.

 

I never thought much about it, but after going online a decade ago, it was interesting to discover that there were many photographers/ painters with this condition. After all it sure makes it easy to pre-visualize a 2D image, as you naturally see things that way anyway :?)

 

...

Phew for me too:)

I have no binocular vision either and while my left eye is the stronger, I use the camera right eyed with diopter correction. Going with the brain hemisphere theory, I go around looking for pictures with my creative side and use the camera with my analytic side. Lack of fusion can also impair your sense of distance, unless you have a reason to learn a new way and rangefinder photography did that for me.

Bob

[telyt]

there may be hundreds of forum members out there unable to see colours correctly.

 

Not on this forum. They're using other brands because they can't see the difference

[kamilsukun]

One of my eyes shows the paper very slightly dimmer and pinker than the other.

 

 

Well, that's en vogue these days. Very trendy...