Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with colorblind

How can I color correct my digital photos if I don't see colors well?

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:08:05 -0800

I want to color correct my digital photos, but I have a color vision deficiency. Up to now, I've been correcting the levels manually, but relying on the auto-color features in Picasa or Photoshop for colors, but often this doesn't do a good job and the colors look off, even to me. I can manually correct the levels and adjust the colors so they look right to me, but that doesn't guarantee they will look right to others. Is there any way to color correct numerically (for instance, using the eyedropper tool on someone's face to to see if the RGB value of skin falls within a skin-tone range) Otherwise, is there a service that I can send my digital photos to where they can color correct them perfectly and send them back? I'm interested in the digital files, not in getting prints.

Do contact lenses that compensate for color blindness work?

Elmore — Sun, 17 May 2009 10:36:35 -0800

Are those contact lenses that compensate for red/green colour blindness actually any use? I had a long overdue appointment with the optician today. When I told them I was red/green colour blind, the optician then told me that there are contact lenses available that have a red dot that covers the pupil on the dominant eye. She gave me a test lens to try and it did make a difference on the test cards with all the coloured dots where you have to say (guess!) the number.

I imagine these lenses are pretty expensive, and I'm not sure that apart from getting through those test cards it would actually make any difference to my experience of the world. My level of colour blindness isn't very bad, it doesn't impact on my ability to make a living or enjoy life in any way - it's only trivial things that can be a bit frustrating (playing board games and computer games in particular). But, that said, part of me would love to see the world the way most people do.

While I know that my colour blindness is not a big deal, when I used vizcheck (website is gone it seems, but it was a photoshop plugin that converted images to how they would be seen by people with different types of colour blindness) on some photos to show my girlfriend how things look to me (sort of) she got pretty upset and explained to me that the colour red was supposed to be bright the way that yellow is bright. That was a bit of a shock, and while I'd like something as simple as a contact lens that would show this to me... I'm dubious.

Does anyone have first hand experience of using these lenses that compensate for red/green colour blindness? Do they actually make a difference to you when you use them, or is it just a scam, or a device that lets people determined to get their pilot's license pass the test?

Learning to see color?

Chris4d — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 16:22:57 -0800

Is there a perceptual (non-physical) component to colorblindness that can be cured or mitigated by training? I've known for a long time that I have color vision deficiency, but it's only recently through self-testing and research borne of curiosity that I've self-diagnosed moderate protanopia/protanomaly. So I have color vision, it just isn't "correct." I know that I can't grow better photoreceptors, but can I train my brain to be more responsive to those difficult hues, the way that musicians can learn perfect pitch? Are there any methods to accomplish this? Have you found ways to outsmart your weak eyes?

orange taxicabs labeled yellow

Rash — Mon, 14 Mar 2005 21:14:06 -0800

Why do some American transport companies named "Yellow" paint their vehicles orange? In Northern Virginia there's a "Yellow Cab" company whose fleet is actually orange. What's up with that? And nationally, another example (you've probably seen 'em out on the interstate): a trucking company called Yellow paints their cabs orange, with orange details on their trailers (lorries). Something like the Japanese confusion of blue with green? I doubt that it's color blindness (which allegedly affects 10% of males, to some degree) since that's usually red-green. My understanding is, the yellow-blue variant is quite rare.

Not sure why this is aggravating, might find it less so if they had a good reason. Possibly just to be memorable, like a cat named "Dog"?

Color Blindness

painquale — Tue, 07 Dec 2004 23:58:23 -0800

Paging all color blind users! I'm curious about the fact that some dichromats and anomolous trichromats can live through a large portion of their adult lives without realizing that they're color blind. When did you first recognize that you were color blind? Does the world look different to you now than it did then? Before you were diagnosed, did you use different words ('red' and 'green') to refer to perceptually similar colors? In general, I'm hoping to get the lowdown on the subjective experience of being color blind.

Am I color blind?

jonah — Tue, 21 Sep 2004 11:50:08 -0800

Am I color blind? Because "The Green" looks more brown to me than anything else. This is a serious question, my dad is color blind, but I always tested as not color blind.