Pepsiman Loc: New York City

Color blind are the wrong words. I am color blind. However, I do see all the colors but I can't tell which color some of them are. One time I bought what I saw was a BLUE gym bag. Weeks latter I was told it was Purple.

When looking at the color chart with numbers inside the colors, a color blind person can not see the numbers in the GREEN or RED colors. Not both, only one or the other.

Tony

Fleckjohn65 Loc: Ajax Ontario Canada

I have an acquaintance that is colour blind. His optometrist got him a pair of eyeglasses that allows him to see and distinguish colour! They have the same appearance as dark sun glasses.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Red/Green is the most common colorblindness

Don, the 2nd son Loc: Crowded Florida

Thank you for understanding!! So MANY presentations are color coded such as maps. Zoning, land use, tax districts the list is endless and many colors look identical to those who have impaired color vision.

sirvive Loc: South Louisiana

I have the red-green color deficiency, often referred to as color blindness, which it is not. I fail most of the Ishihara tests but I see many colors. Traffic lights are not a problem as the green lights appear as almost totally white and the reds appear as red. The yellow caution and red lights are closer in color to me than the green lights. I have frustration with battery charger lights that are red when charging and turn green when charged. I have the Enchroma color correction glasses and indeed the green traffic lights appear with a color green tint, and grass and trees are more intensely colored than before. Often I have trouble picking out red flowers against certain shades of green foliage too. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish green bananas from ripe ones too, so I often ask a passerby to point out the green ones. Other subtle shades of colors are also misidentified in some cases. All in all not a big problem in photography since the equipment takes care of it, but I do have to be cautious about my photo editing especially where color is affected.

MartyM Loc: Monroe, NC

One of my favorite photographers, Joel Grimes, is color blind.

wthomson Loc: Tempe, Arizona

There exist humans who can't see color (monochromats), but they are very, very rare. Also, color blindness is almost always carried (but not exhibited) by the female and passed on to her male offspring--thank you ladies!!

wthomson Loc: Tempe, Arizona

I happen to see slightly different colors in each eye.

tommystrat Loc: Bigfork, Montana

I do have such a deficiency and before I finalize any image in PP I ask my wife if the colors are "correct" as far as reds and greens are concerned. Having not done this on a rare occasion, I have been informed that the lovely (IMHO) grass in my image was "neon." Oops...

ChackbayGuy Loc: South Louisiana

Jimmy T.... I went online per your link to test. Turns out I am "strongly Deutan" color vision deficient. The explanation on the site described my condition very well. First indication to me that I saw the world different happened at age 17 in Florence, Italy. My parents and sister were enthralled with the marble facing on a catheral. My brother and I thought it was all grey shapes of marble. Turned out to be pinks and greens. College was a challenge, as I had to constantly ask profs not to use red chalk on a green board, can't read it at all! Another issue has been color coded resistors and capacitors, as I am an electrical engineer and Ham radio operator. My pilot's license is restricted to day only vfr as I can't always tell light signal colors from the air. Went through a "red" light once on a signal that only had three bulbs, so the direction of my travel had green on top and red on bottom. Fortunately, no traffic. Other than that, no issues! love photography, but do tend to over saturate to let me see greens, especially. For ones that I post, always check with my wife.... John

tommystrat Loc: Bigfork, Montana

Exactly!!!

wthomson Loc: Tempe, Arizona

I have a good female color-deficient friend who wears outrageous color combinations but fortunately has a personality to match.

jrm21

I've seen various explanations of the years for the reasoning. While to top/bottom positioning is helpful to those who have problems with color, the colors themselves are based on utility to those with typical vision. This site has what seems to be a good explanation:

https://www.thrillist.com/cars/nation/traffic-light-colors-history

Red is an inherited symbol from railroads
Red symbolizes danger in many cultures, which makes sense, considering it has the longest wavelength of any color on the visible spectrum, meaning you can see it from a greater distance than other colors. With the ironic exception of stop signs (not stop lights, just signs -- more on that in a second), red has meant stop since long before cars existed, with train signals' use of red dating back to the days when mechanical arms lifted and lowered to indicate whether the rail ahead was clear. So that one's simple.


Green meant "caution" at first
Green's role in lights has actually changed dramatically over time. Its wavelength is next to (and shorter than) yellow's on the visible spectrum, meaning it's still easier to see than any color other than red and yellow. Back in the early days of railway lights, green originally meant "caution," while the "all-clear" light was, well, clear or white. Trains, of course, take an interminably long time to stop, and legend has it that several disastrous collisions happened after an engineer mistook stars in the night horizon for an all-clear. Thus, green became "go," and for a long time, railways used only green and red to signal trains.

Yellow means "caution" because it's almost as easy to see as red
From the earliest days of motoring up until the mid-1900s, not all stop signs were red -- many were yellow, along with yield signs, because at night it was all but impossible to see a red stop sign in a poorly lit area. The yellow stop-sign craze began in Detroit in 1915, a city that five years later installed its first electric traffic signal, which happened to include the very first amber traffic light, at the corner of Michigan and Woodward Aves.


edit: link fixed

wthomson Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Interesting history. When I was a kid, my home town traffic lights had red on the bottom, green on top (later changed). At first, after the change, I remember that my dad (a very careful driver) ran through a couple.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

https://facty.com/ailments/eyes/understanding-the-spectrum-of-color-blindness/?style=quick&utm_source=adwords-ca&adid=381161123958&utm_medium=c-search&utm_term=color%20blindness&utm_campaign=FH-CA---Search---Understanding-the-Spectrum-of-Color-Blindness---Desktop&gclid=Cj0KCQjwvvj5BRDkARIsAGD9vlJf9S2-TnknGTrKB_2A2veE-mD-CxSqNLUTMINxJuO4qEJDXOIssVcaAn3nEALw_wcB

Obviously, my not being a medical doctor, much less an ophthalmologist, I yield to the experts and provided y'all a great explanation in the above link. It explains the various deficits in color recognition and perception and some of the biology involved.

As a photographer, who was always heavily involved in color reproduction and still is, and have done custom printing in both analog and digital modes, I understand the need for good vision, accurate color perception and skills in color management technology. So, back in the day when I ran an in-house color lab in my studio and had to hire and train technicians, the first order of busiess was to give potential employees a basic "color blindness" test- the one with the colored dots that form images and words that reman unseen if someone suffers from color blindness (please excuse the laymans terminology- all the medical technobabble is in the link).

I am not any kind super-genious but I am blessed with excellant color perception. When I did analog color correction I coud see nunces in coor to .005 or better. Some of that is just the way your "eyeballs" come from the factory and some of it is practice and training. Not every correctio is streighforward RBG or CYM, there are often mixed combinations lke meagent/redor cyan/blue or yellow/green. Some foksl have an "ear" for music and are born with perfect pitch but theses trails still requre practice and development.

There might be some remedial option to somewaht correct colur blindess but I am not certain.

If you are serions about color management in you photograhy, color blindness would be a serious and unfortuinate disadvantage. Yes, there are all kinds of simulated and overly saturated colors in post-processing methods but you still need to see and control what you are doing. Some folks figure out various workaround solutions.

I know many talanted and productive photograhers that have dficits in color perception- they just leave that aspect of production up to others- their assistant, lab personnel or outsourced color lab srvices.

Does anyone remeber the disclaimer in the data sheets that came with all the Kodak color films ? Basically, the dyes and pigments in the film are not exactly the same as those in whatever you are shooting- the paint job on a car, a flower, an apple or a watermelon and of course a skin tone. You can get close but don't pull out a spectrometer or a reflection color densitometer and expect a perfect match!