CCC Forum

In my presentation about composition, as part of the section on colour I talk about colour blindness. Whilst I do not specifically ask the audience, I have come across a number of members of other clubs who are colour blind. As you would imagine, it can be quite a hindrance. Especially when it comes to photography. However, photographers tend to be a self selecting group and those who are colour blind are less likely to take it up.

Now someone is claiming that they have developed spectacle lenses which, while not a cure, enhances colour recognition for those who cannot distinguish between red and green. Potentially that helps a lot of people as it is the most common form of colour blindness and affects 1 in 8 of the male population. It occurs much less frequently with women.

http://blog.redrivercatalog.com/2017/04 ... phers.html

I have not investigated whether the lenses are available in the UK, but have posted this information here in case it is of help to anyone.

Interesting. I wonder if any CCC members are afflicted?

One way around the problem, I suppose, would be to create in black and white.

davidb wrote:One way around the problem, I suppose, would be to create in black and white.

The people I have encountered have various coping strategies and doing monochrome shots is one of them. Some subjects, such as post boxes and London buses are well known for being red, so the photographer can take that into account when shooting. Others rely on their wives to tell them when there is red in the scene. One person told me of his friend who was colour blind and drove a tube train for 25 years before TFL checked his vision during a routine medical examination. He had been determining the status of the red and green signals by the positioning of the illuminated light. TFL promptly dismissed him, although it does beg the question why it had not been detected before he commenced his employment with them.

It does not help that red is such a hot colour and its presence can have a strong effect in a colour image. I cannot help but admire those whose love of photography is such that they do whatever they can to get around their colour blindness.

Mike Farley wrote:

davidb wrote:One way around the problem, I suppose, would be to create in black and white.

TFL promptly dismissed him, although it does beg the question why it had not been detected before he commenced his employment with them.

I can understand where TfL were coming from but the sack was a bit harsh. Couldn't they have given him a less critical position within the organisation - a promotion perhaps (well deserved after 25 years!). [Other businesses just promote their idiots out of harms way!] [I'm not saying this gentleman was an idiot just lucky to have remained undiscovered for so long}

davidb wrote:I can understand where TfL were coming from but the sack was a bit harsh. Couldn't they have given him a less critical position within the organisation - a promotion perhaps (well deserved after 25 years!). [Other businesses just promote their idiots out of harms way!] [I'm not saying this gentleman was an idiot just lucky to have remained undiscovered for so long}

I did wonder about the sacking. I do not have all the details, but maybe re-allocation to other duties was on the table. Tube drivers are well paid and the person might not have wanted to take a pay cut.

Promoting people beyond their level of competence used to be known as the "Peter Principle", but I suspect a lot of businesses are wise to that nowadays. When I was working, we were advised that we would need to prove ourselves in the higher graded role for at least 18 months before being considered for promotion and there were aptitude tests for managers. There were people who were doing management graded jobs very capably, but failed the test and lost out on promotion as a result.

As for the driver being fortunate to be in post for 25 years, passengers can consider themselves lucky that he was never in a position when any confusion over the signals posed a safety risk.

davidb wrote:Interesting. I wonder if any CCC members are afflicted?

One way around the problem, I suppose, would be to create in black and white.

Not necessarily as colour blindness can affect the way you see gradations of tone.
There are some simulations which are interesting... http://www.colourblindawareness.org/col ... rience-it/

My husband is red/black colour blind as well as red/green. His biggest handicap is knowing when electronic devices are charging / charged as not only can he not distinguish between red/orange/green LED lights, he can't see them against a black charger. Manufacturers are beginning to address this by making chargers lighter grey, and providing flashing lights or bars, instead of one LED that changes from red/orange to green. Something the rest of us don't really consider...