“Why does that dog look green?”
That comment led to my parents discovering that I was red-green colorblind. Years later, I am now a colorblind night photographer.
What do I see since I’m colorblind?
Some people think that if someone is colorblind, they see only black and white. That is an extremely rare occurrence.Â
I am red-green colorblind, also known as deuteranopia. Approximately 8% of males have this, so it’s not unusual. There are different degrees of this. Mine is relatively strong.
I can easily differentiate between bold colors of red and green. Traffic lights are no issue at all. Grass is green. Fire trucks are red.
However, throw in subtle hues of reds and greens, as well as related colors, such as oranges and browns, and I’m usually sunk. When people discuss cyan, teal, turquoise, chartreuse or aquamarine, they hold little meaning to me.
If someone told me a color were teal instead of blue, I might not know any better. I have little concept about what taupe or chartreuse are. Pale pinks and light gray, subtle shades of blue and purple, bright greens and yellows, or dark greens and gray — they are confusing to me.
How do I take photos?
Taking photos is relatively simple. However, I sometimes light my subjects with different colors. Sometimes, I’ve attempted to select blue, only to find that I’ve selected teal. If I select a color like green and I want to be absolutely sure, I will increase the saturation and hold the light against a relatively neutral surface. Same with pink.
How do I post-process photos?
Post-processing colors is one of many reasons why I would never be a wedding photographer. If someone has a specific clothing and I don’t nail the exact color, that’s not so good.
Consequently, I try to set a proper white balance when photographing despite already shooting in RAW. I find nailing the white balance really helps me later. It also enables me to see the histogram out in the field.
When I begin editing, I simply don’t mess with the colors very much. I rarely use saturation much anyway.
How do I really know what color this is?
If I’m really not sure what color something is, I use Photoshop’s Color Picker. I select the color in question on the image. This produces a dialog box that tells gives me a visual representation of where things are on the RGB spectrum. Usually, that’s enough.
If I need more information or confirmation, I simply copy the color hex code, as shown above. This is simply a hexadecimal way to represent a specific color in RGB format.
Then I paste the code into a site such as ColorHexa. This provides a lot of information about the color.
Saturation
If I am not certain about how much of a particular color is in an image, I will crank that color to 100% temporarily using a saturation slider. If that color is not there, little will change. If something does change, then I will make subtle adjustments. I don’t overdo it because other people will perceive that as oversaturated.
I have trouble using things like hue sliders and color mix panels. If I shift hues, I will crank the saturation of that color by 100% temporarily so I can determine what color that is.
Natural looking photos thanks to LuminarAI
More recently, I have been experimenting with the Templates in LuminarAI. Because Luminar is using machine learning from millions of photos, it sometimes helps me to achieve a more natural looking photo.
Color Cast in Nik Color Efex
I occasionally use the Color Cast function in Nik Color Efex. I’ll click on something that I know is supposed to be white. Even if I don’t end up applying the Color Cast function, this can sometimes help me to become more aware of some of the colors or casts in my image.
Asking for help while post-processing
If I create any shifts in color, something that might occur if processing a Milky Way photo, I will ask someone if the colors look amiss. And again, I really try not to change or mess with the colors very much at all.
Is there any cure or treatment for deuteranopia?
No, there’s not. However, there are glasses that somewhat address color blindness. You’ve probably seen the videos on social media where someone weeps because they’re seeing colors for the first time.
Curious about this, I purchased Pilestone red-green colorblind glasses. While I did not experience any emotional revelations, they did help me differentiate between challenging colors. However, the colors looked tinted. It was nothing that would help me edit photos. I returned the glasses.
With some ingenuity and persistence, you can definitely overcome color blindness. While occasionally it might be confusing or frustrating, I would urge you not to be discouraged. Photography is something that has brought me great joy despite my deuteranopia. I hope it does for you as well.
extremel1y
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I’m also red-green color blind and basically do most of the things you talked about. Thanks for the great article!
You are most welcome! Thanks!
Interesting coping skills. I learned at an early age not to blurt out “Look at that Blue car”. I also tried the glasses and my family was very disappointed that I didn’t have that ah-ha moment.
For photography, I really enjoy shooting and looking at black and white. It takes the color guessing out of it. But your night shots are very interesting.
Thanks for explaining how color-blind people see the world.
My pleasure. Apologies about the late reply, but I never saw this comment. Thanks for sharing your experiences. And I agree, black and white photos take the guesswork out of it. There are times in which i am processing in black and white, and I smile and think, “Ahhhh….this is so much easier!” But yes, thanks for the nice comment about my night photography.
As a colorblind amateur photographer, this article has tips I will use. Thanks! Since your article is about night photography, I’m surprised you didn’t mention that colorblind people have better than average night vision. Colorblindness is not a disability. It is a hunter’s adaptation. Check out this article: https://www.colorblindguide.com/post/the-advantage-of-being-colorblind The way you describe your colorblindness is similar to mine. My color blindness is also severe, and the regular-strength glasses for colorblindness didn’t do much for me. I found that these glasses helped me: https://enchroma.com/collections/outdoor-color-blind-glasses?collection-filter=filter-cx3-sun-sp After I got used to them, these sunglasses made driving and sunsets entirely new experiences. Alas, they don’t help me with… Read more »
Randy, thanks for the comment, and apologies for the late reply. I did not see your comments until just now. I may not have mentioned about better than average night vision because I quite frankly didn’t know that. My vision isn’t all that great, in either case, but you are right in that colorblindness would not be a disability. Regarding Enchroma, I tried the glasses, and it did help me differentiate between colors that were previously challenging. However, I found that it changed the colors as well, adding a cast and also making things a little darker. While it did… Read more »