Color blindness and Photography: Sporadically I have seen mention by an UHH-er having color blindness. Since I do not have this myself, I cannot speak about it. However, I think that...

Stephan G

Sporadically I have seen mention by an UHH-er having color blindness. Since I do not have this myself, I cannot speak about it. However, I think that this is a serious situation that would benefit further discussion. I am sure that the topic may have been approached in the past. It would be good to help the many of us to be brought up to date.

Any and all commentary will be appreciated.

RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

Stephan G wrote:

Sporadically I have seen mention by an UHH-er having color blindness. Since I do not have this myself, I cannot speak about it. However, I think that this is a serious situation that would benefit further discussion. I am sure that the topic may have been approached in the past. It would be good to help the many of us to be brought up to date.

Any and all commentary will be appreciated.

Since colors in digital imagery can be so easily faked in Photoshop, does it really matter?

russelray Loc: La Mesa CA

RWR wrote:

Since colors in digital imagery can be so easily faked in Photoshop, does it really matter?

Is it possible to fake a color that a person who is color blind cannot see or distinguish?

I do a lot of presentations to cactus & succulent clubs throughout the nation on nature's geometry in succulents. One day a color-blind person recommended that I not use red arrows and green arrows on the same slide because both colors looked the same to him. And certainly don't say, "The red arrow shows.... and the green arrow shows...." I took his recommendation to heart and changed my presentation to take that into account.

lsaguy Loc: Udall, KS, USA

From what I remember from ground school, the problem is usually with the color red.

Rick

Cubanphoto

In my line of work where we rely on "visual management," I have changed the usage of the color green with blue. There are different levels of color blindness, the most prevalent, as I was told, has problem with green. If have not noticed stop lights always have red stop and green at the bottom. The color blinded can see a light but not the color green.
Google has a chart that show what a color blind person can see. I learned all of this through va co-worker who is color blind.

Stephan G

RWR wrote:

Since colors in digital imagery can be so easily faked in Photoshop, does it really matter?

I will say, yes, especially to the person who has the blindness.

The ability to "fake" colors in PP does not address the issue.

User ID

I’m not color blind but I realize that many of “us” believe that color blind vision is rather like B&W imaging. Until learning otherwise, well into my adult life, that was my own misunderstanding.

My better informed and lightly researched current understanding is that most “color blindness” is hardly similar to B&W photo imaging and is far closer to what you get if in your PP editor you somewhat reduce overall saturation and nearly cancel out ONE of the RGB channels ... red IIRC.

I don’t know if there is or is not a truly monochrome version of color blindness. My current understanding is that the animals we refer to as color blind also have the color deficient vision described above rather than monochrome vision.

Stephan G

Cubanphoto wrote:

In my line of work where we rely on "visual management," I have changed the usage of the color green with blue. There are different levels of color blindness, the most prevalent, as I was told, has problem with green. If have not noticed stop lights always have red stop and green at the bottom. The color blinded can see a light but not the color green.
Google has a chart that show what a color blind person can see. I learned all of this through va co-worker who is color blind.

Color blindness for red and green is the reason for the positioning of lights on traffic signals. Red on top or left. Green on bottom or right.

Color blindness does affect how the environment is perceived. This, I think, does have impact on photographers who have such condition.

pappleg

The term "color blind" is a misnomer and very misleading. I have "defective color vision" which is a more appropriate term. The most common forms are red/brown and blue/green and and manifest in only very subtle differences. The best example I can give is with General Motors cars from 1965-66. They featured paint colors of a pale blue and a turquoise. If I saw the two side by side I could easily distinguish which was which but if I saw only one I could get it wrong. It never affected my ability as a photographer and although it was not my profession I did paid weddings for 35 years with many very satisfied customers including the daughters of some moms that I had done years earlier. Hope that clarifies the unfortunate term "Color Blind".

Pat

repleo Loc: Boston

russelray wrote:

Is it possible to fake a color that a person who i... (show quote)

If red and green are problem colors, why are they used on traffic lights. Just curious.

Stephan G

pappleg wrote:

The term "color blind" is a misnomer and... (show quote)

Just an aside. The term "Color Blind" has been used for some time. Googling "color blind" will provide some information to consider.

Thank you for your clarification and addition to the conversation.

RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

russelray wrote:

Is it possible to fake a color that a person who i... (show quote)

Since digital is so imitation, who knows what the original color was? And with film, the best anyone can do is to try and come close - exact color reproduction is virtually impossible.
As for your arrows, I would make them black, numbered or of a different shape, to illustrate the difference.

hoola

A little humor here : The Dean of fine arts at my college was color blind but didn't tell anyone . I found out thru his daughter who I dated . Ha.

russelray Loc: La Mesa CA

repleo wrote:

If red and green are problem colors, why are they used on traffic lights. Just curious.

Color blindness for red and green is the reason for the positioning of lights on traffic signals. Red on top or left. Green on bottom or right.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

Stephan G wrote:

Sporadically I have seen mention by an UHH-er having color blindness. Since I do not have this myself, I cannot speak about it. However, I think that this is a serious situation that would benefit further discussion. I am sure that the topic may have been approached in the past. It would be good to help the many of us to be brought up to date.

Any and all commentary will be appreciated.

Inability to "correctly" distinguish color is a problem, and is one that has largely gone unaddressed in many areas of design. When I retired, many critical elements of labelling were still being done via color coded symbols. This is despite the fact that approximately one third of all people have identifiably deficient color vision. Most common is the inability to distinguish between red and green. Also very common is "pastel color blindness," the inability to distinguish weakly saturated colors.

Given the relative prevalence of the condition, it is pretty interesting that in general, the world seems to move on as if it does not exist.