Color vision variations

[Bodryn]

I have what I consider good color vision and I have always been interested in the subject of color vision but I was never more interested than I was about 3 years ago when I learned from my dentist that women usually have better color perception than men. The point was proved to me when neither my dentist or I could tell the exact color match of teeth but his dental assistant, a pretty young redhead, could. Because of her my dental bridge came out precisely matched to my teeth. If the match isn't precise, everybody can tell those teeth aren't natural.

Since color is very basic to what we work with on this forum, I'd be interested in people's color perception experiences. I have read that even among those who can see the entire range of colors, there are differences in the ability to perceive colors well. I also secretly wonder sometimes if some of the people who concentrate on b/w photos have a color vision deficit? I am quite sure that every person has a unique ability to see color. I recall a color-blind friend of mine telling me that he could see red and green if he held it closer to his eyes, i.e., the color had a larger visual area, which suggests that he had a few of those types of cone receptors, but not as many as most people did. He was unable to find a red golf ball in green grass or to spot where I had occasionally circled black pencil handwriting with a red pencil for editing purposes.

Anybody?

[Moppie]

That pretty much sums up everything I learnt in stage 1 and 2 psychology :)

Everyone percieve's the world differntly, either at the biological level, or the philosophical level.

[Longwatcher]

Having been an imagery analyst for over 20 years prior to retiring for the first time I noted on many occasions where peoples visual perception were different. This was most evident by the fact that I could see more detail then most people and resulted in some very frustrating times with some of my supervisors, as I had to wait for better images to prove to them I was correct.

I have learned over the years that my eye sight is slightly shifted into the UV spectrum from what is considered normal vision. I still see red, green, blue, yellow; but how I perceive them is apparently different. I did a test with my brother once using a computer screen. We took some colored paper and tried to match it to the screen. He let me know when he had it matched up perfectly and I looked at it and saw it looking too orange (or purple (it has been awhile)) compared to the paper. Then I matched it up and it resulted in his saying it went the other direction. because the monitor emits the light, while the paper reflected the light the color appeared different because it was at slightly different wavelengths across the spectrum.

This is why I usually ask someone to review my prints and I had to learn (instead of know) what looks best to others. To me the prints people like best seem to have a very slight yellow/magenta cast to me. I have learned to adjust.

The one thing I always wished they would do is test everyones spectral respose, not just if they are color blind.

[Bodryn]

Fascinating account! Thank you for that. I know such variations in color perception must be true because of what I've learned about the varying perceptions of people who estimate brightnesses of red variable stars. People may disagree with others about a star's brightness but will be consistent within their own estimates. I believe that each observer is/was assigned a correction factor over time. (I don't know whether that's all changed now.)

I have noticed that I can see noticeably better to drive in fog when using red-tinted glasses. I suppose somebody whose spectrum of vision tends more towards the infrared end of the spectrum would do better driving in fog.

There obviously is much more to all of this than most people are aware of. I had a friend who was crippled with MS (multiple sclerosis). He mentioned that for awhile he experienced loss of color vision but it came back. I can imagine that there could be varying partial loss of color vision as well. Talk show host Montel Williams says that as he was about to begin training to be a Naval jet pilot, he suddenly lost his color vision and had to drop out of training; this was many years before he developed other symptoms and was diagnosed as having MS, but has recovered his color vision.

I've sometimes noticed that women prefer pastel colors more, whereas men prefer bright reds, blues, etc. Is that because women find stronger colors too strong for their more sensitive color receptors? Or is it just a feminine psychological preference?

Do others have personal experiences or information?

[Jesper]

People on the forums here and elsewhere are often asking the question "The colours in my print don't look like the colours on my monitor, why?" - you can imagine how hard it must be to match them perfectly if different people have different opinions on how the colours match...

When I was 18 I had to do some tests before I'd have to do military service. One of the tests was the famous colour blindness test with a card with different coloured dots, and you'd have to tell which number you saw. Already after two or three cards the guy who did the test with me said "OK, you can stop now... you're a bit colour blind, aren't you?"... :rolleyes:

Especially when the ambient light is low, I can't see the difference between red, green and brown colours very well. I can see they are different, but I just can't say whether it's red or green. When the light is bright enough, I have no trouble at all with seeing colours.

Here's more information about colour blindness: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_blindness

[rfmmjm]

have eso 1 ds called canon, sent serviced. color does not match in printed photo to what is acually being photographed. no one can seem to explain why the difference. some suggestions change presets inside camara, well that didin't work HELP!!!!

Let me also try to further explain. Take a photo of individual with a kodak digital and print the green of the basket uniform is correct when printed and matches the uniform color correctly. Now I take a photo of the team (same lighting) and the green uniform is now a dark celtic green. Have rerally tried everything. had return of sales since the team photo does not match the kids individual photo. also happens with blues reds pink is really bad.

don't know what to do

[MazerRakhm]

While talking to the eye doctor about this for a while at my recent exam she told me some interesting facts:

About 7% of males suffer from some type of color blindness (mostly hereditary) while only .4% of women. I believe just over 95% of males affected by this are of the red green variety.

Thanks to my grandfather I belong to the red/green club.