Harry0 Loc: Gardena, Cal

Once upon a time, a long time ago, in a far away land (Philadelphia)
Detectives were frustrated trying to find a prolific burglar and jewel thief. They discovered he was colorblind by his actions at the crime scenes. So, at the end of jewelers row, they reversed the traffic signal, and waited for the guy who was waiting- at the green light.

Harry0 Loc: Gardena, Cal

Every so often: if the electro magnetic spectrum was laid out the length of the Brooklyn Bridge
Humans are responsive to less than a meter of it.

Robg

I am red-green colorblind.

The form I have is genetic, occurs in males, but the gene comes through the mother so it is generation skipping.

It can vary from individual to individual. Mine is moderate and as a result I can differentiate some reds and greens. For example red and green traffic lights look red and green to me. However those tests that ask what number you see in a scattered mix of colored dots, I always see what the red-green colorblind folks see.

It’s the more natural reds that give me problems. I used to hike with my kids in an area noted for wild strawberries. They’re picking like crazy, but I don’t see them. Only by shape can I tell that there is a strawberry. Another example, in the fall someone will say, “look at that tree it’s so red it looks like it’s on fire!”, and my reaction is “huh, where?”

In the sixties when I took my draft physical, the test indicated I was red-green color blind. I was then further tested on my night vision, which is much better than most. For example, in a car at night, I can see things down the road that others don’t see. It turns out that red-green colorblindness correlates with much better night vision. When the army discovered this, rather than disqualifying for the trait, they used it to select for forward spotters for artillery. (It didn’t affect me as I was ruled out for other health reasons.)

In terms of my photography, I don’t have a lot of “fall color” photos. On the other hand sunsets are probably just as dramatic to me as others. In any case, I have a lot of sunset photos.

Scwoody

Here is my take on the concept of color blindness. I am a retired dentist who spent 40+ years matching colors between different teeth and thoroughly understand the deficiency of color blindness, and Presenting lectures on dental, macrophotography. There are many factors in determining colors or shades. Some of these factors are hue, the basic color red green yellow blue violet etc, value how light or dark is it gray to black to white, and chroma, the intensity or saturation of the color. Example, canary yellow versus school bus yellow. I am color deficient. True color blindness were people only see black or white is extremely rare if not impossible. A color deficiency, the proper term, is a deficiency in the cones of the retina. It is usually in the red - green spectrum. There can be varying levels of this color deficiency. People with a color deficiency do see colors but the colors they see are different from somebody who is completely normal. Example is that I have trouble telling my green socks from my brown socks. With enough training you can overcome this color deficiency, by understanding where the problem lies. So to answer the questions in regards to photography I would make sure you have a color corrected or a ccurate monitor and trust the software.

JBRIII

Many animals see very different spectrums from humans, bees can see in the UV, but I don't believe red. Even those of us without color blindness do not necessarily see what is accepted as normal. For example, in solar astronomy, there is a wavelength in the UV, 395?, which few over 40 can see due to slight cateracts, can be photographed, but not seen visually. Also, recently some women, with one color blind gene and one not, have been shown to have super color vision and see color shades the rest of us can not. Many yellow flowers look very different in the UV with dark centers.

Nicholas J DeSciose

The military, especially the army, has some very interesting uses for soldiers with some degree of color blindness. Example: they are exceptional at distinguishing camouflage. This is a very useful skill.

maciej

Interesting comment on the night vision. My dad had outstanding night vision and some color deficiency. I have great night vision as well - along with some color deficiency although not as deficient as my dad's. My wife's night vision is much much poorer than mine but her color vision is "normal". I wonder if there is a linkage.

drrobins Loc: San Francisco East Bay (Walnut Creek)

As explained previously, since you are a male, you color weakness was not inherited from your father. He gave you a “Y” gene, not the “X” gene where the deficient gene is. So if you have it you inherited from your mother who, if she has normal color vision, is a carrier and passed you, of her 2 X’s, the one with the bad gene.

Rae Zimmerman Loc: Pine Island, FL

I am color blind, confusing tan with some pale shades of green (I see the pale green as tan).

maciej

I understand I inherited the color deficiency from my mother. My comment was related to the possible linkage with color deficiency and superior night vision. I don't know if there have been any studies related to that.

Robg

Look here - many answers re color blindness https://www.archimedes-lab.org/colorblindnesstest.html

And, yes, there is evidence linking color blindness to night vision. I believe it has to do with the (length?) of the cones. The us army knew this in 1969.

Gilbert2019

I'm red/green color blind and deal with this all the time. I also do websites for people and find that what I can and cannot see oftentimes helps in using colors on the webpages - for those who are color blind and those who are not.
There are plenty of websites that talk about using certain colors on webpages for those who are color blind. These same webpages offer many good tips, ideas and suggestions for things related to photography.

maciej

Robg - Thank You the link was very helpful.

mchroust Loc: McMinnville, Oregon

Actually it is red and green. That is prevailing problem for color blind people. I am one of them. It kept me from getting into Naval Officers Candidate School.

Robg

You're welcome! That website confirmed for me that many share my pet peeve wrto red-green color blindness which is the damn red/green diodes on many, many, many electronic devices that indicate power on/off, connection established, battery charged, or indicate that there is a problem. Several times I've been on the phone with somebody's customer support when the question arises - see that flashing light is it red or green?