Colorblind Photographers

[ferrettifr]

So I had a thought today; how many photographers on this site are color blind? Either completely colorblind or just to certain colors!

I am Red/Green colorblind and this causes me issues in different aspects of my life when it comes to something as simple as getting dressed or working on editing a photograph to things at work.

If you are a colorblind photographer here on this forum, how do you work with this disadvantage? I am thinking I may start primarily working with B/W photography. I am interested in hearing from others who have the same problem.

[nathanbarlow]

wow I hadnt considered colourblindness in the context of photography. Maybe you could do your own 'style' which looks right to you (and other red/green colourblind people) but looks odd to the rest of us? I would be interested in seeing someones work like that....

[Woody]

They say I'm colour blind because I cannot pass the confetti book test. Yet I breeze through the lantern test and do not have any problems in my day to day life.

I flew light aircraft for many years and went throught the same rigmorole every time my medical renewal came up.

I don't think, in fact I'm sure, it has no effect onmy photography. But then every one is different and perhaps I'm very lucky to see at all.

Cheers

John W

[CaptainNH]

Unless you're a photog who's obsessed with subtle tones and patterns, I don't think there should be any problem.

If it were me, I'd grab myself a good grey card (or in fact the Spyder Cube I already have) to add some rigour to the white balance problem.

[OsmosisStudios]

A friend at work is Red/Green colourblind. He's been like that since birth, though, so he's gotten used to it. He can force himself to see differences in tone.

[BryanC]

Your post caught my interest, so I did a Google search with the entry 'color blind photography'. Quite a few results came up...too many to list here. There's even at least one flickr group dedicated to color blind photographers. Do the search... there seems to be some good information out there.

[Paperwayte]

I'm Red/Green colorblind as well. I've been working with photoshop and some film editing for a few years now. I'm just starting to jump into photography. I've never been called out on it but as someone mentioned you can force yourself to see differences in tone. Another method I use in Photoshop is the eyedropper tool, and just try and estimate the color off the RGB values. As I said I'm new, but I'd imagine if you shot in RAW you would make the best use of the eyedropper tool in post (?).

[Quo Fan]

My buddy is not only color blind, but also legally blind. He shoots some decent photography, and his wife does all the post processing. I'm not sure what color blind he is, but I know that he can't distinguish between red and black, and some color combinations. He also has trouble with very bright light. He sees better in the dark than in the light. This has made for some interesting mountain bike rides with him.

[RLucas]

Everyone is color blind to an extent. Men even more so than women. Sometimes it is very subtle, and sometimes it's not. Luckily it was very subtle for me, being in the business I am in. Sometimes it even flips. When I was in my teens and early 20's, I could could pick up color shifts in the green family fairly easily, now that I am pushing 40, I am able to see more shifts in reds, and less greens. I think, however, that you can train your eyes to do this, as someone has already stated. I think this is what I did without even realizing it.
It can be a curse as well as a blessing though. I can see minor hue shifts on about 95% of the automobiles on the road. It can be very annoying somethimes!