What it's like to be color blind

[aloofman]

UKnjb is right that not being able to fully appreciate art is one of the disappointing results from being color blind. My wife studies art history and I go with her to art shows and lectures, but I know I'm seeing only 2/3 of the colors in many paintings.

Last week we went to a lecture about Gustave Courbet at the Getty Center, and saw this painting, "Grotto of Sarrazine near Nans-sous-Sainte-Anne", in person:

http://www.getty.edu/art/acquisitions/images/courbet_enlarge.jpg

Everyone around me oohed and aahed at it. I wished I was seeing it as it was meant to be seen, instead of missing the reddish hues that I assume it has.

It doesn't have many reddish hues. Kind of a drab brown really.

 

[dotdotdot]

UKnjb is right that not being able to fully appreciate art is one of the disappointing results from being color blind. My wife studies art history and I go with her to art shows and lectures, but I know I'm seeing only 2/3 of the colors in many paintings.

Last week we went to a lecture about Gustave Courbet at the Getty Center, and saw this painting, "Grotto of Sarrazine near Nans-sous-Sainte-Anne", in person:

http://www.getty.edu/art/acquisitions/images/courbet_enlarge.jpg

Everyone around me oohed and aahed at it. I wished I was seeing it as it was meant to be seen, instead of missing the reddish hues that I assume it has.

The other disappointment is playing games that require color. There are some Flash-based games I like to play at web sites but have a tough time with because you have to match colored dots that I can't tell apart. So I go for personal high scores, even though they are hilariously less than what other people score.

When I play board games with the kids in the family, they all know to let me remove some game piece colors. If there are two or three of us, for example, and the game pieces are blue, red, green, and yellow, I'll make sure we don't use both the red and the green, or I might move the wrong marker.

Its actually not that good looking, just a bunch of greens and browns... no reds or anything. Its like mud on the side of a cave.

 

[Timepass]

I thought it was red, yellow, and blue...

With those three colors you can make a lot of different ones, such as green like you said, but with red, yellow, and green you can not make blue.

Ok so we are both wrong. I look it up really quickly on my computer. 3 primary colors of light are red BLUE and green. Yellow is a 2ndary color. mixing I want to say green light and red light. Mixing blue light and green light gets you cyan (which is very blue color.) Mixing blue and red gets you magenta (very red)
so you get red blue and yellow as you 3 primary pigements. open up you color printer and you see what I mean.

Now back on light we can only see 3 colors of light and that red blue and green. everything else is mixing those 3. Open up photoshop and look at the color munitplations and you noticed that you can only mess with red blue and green. And max any shade of color based on that.

The red blue yellow though everyone has is based on the 3 primary pigments colors which are close enough to red blue yellow. But light is red blue and green.

Sum everything up. We both a little wrong. 3 primary light colors are red blue and green.

 

[dotdotdot]

Ok so we are both wrong. I look it up really quickly on my computer. 3 primary colors of light are red BLUE and green. Yellow is a 2ndary color. mixing I want to say green light and red light. Mixing blue light and green light gets you cyan (which is very blue color.) Mixing blue and red gets you magenta (very red)
so you get red blue and yellow as you 3 primary pigements. open up you color printer and you see what I mean.

Now back on light we can only see 3 colors of light and that red blue and green. everything else is mixing those 3. Open up photoshop and look at the color munitplations and you noticed that you can only mess with red blue and green. And max any shade of color based on that.

The red blue yellow though everyone has is based on the 3 primary pigments colors which are close enough to red blue yellow. But light is red blue and green.

Sum everything up. We both a little wrong. 3 primary light colors are red blue and green.

Now I feel bad having a color argument in a thread about colorblindness.

 

[Doctor Q]

Either they're pulling your leg, or I'm even more colour-blind than I thought!

I can't tell you without running it through some filters or looking at the channels separately in Photoshop. Perhaps I only assumed it looked better to others than to me! This web-based reproduction, however, is unlikely to be a good color representation of the actual painting, which is surprisingly small but is still considered to be one of Courbet's finest paintings.

So can you tell if a member is online simply by looking at a post of theirs? That is, does the green "online" light appear significantly different than the "offline" indicator?

You are referring to these two icons:

Yes, I can easily tell them apart, but I don't know what colors they actually are.

I likely suffer from Deuteranomaly, which is apparently a very mild form of color blindness.

Yes, deuteranomaly is a milder form of deuteranopia. Both are forms of red-green color blindness where you see green poorly.

 

[redeye be]

Here's an interesting site that lets you look at a website being colour blind.
http://colorfilter.wickline.org/

I feel sorry for "duetanopians", MacRumors looks pink.

 

[Melkor]

When I was younger I used to think colour-blind people could only see things like a black and white TV.


...just thought I'd share that.

 

[Doctor Q]

When I was younger I used to think colour-blind people could only see things like a black and white TV.

The first time my mom heard the phrase "colored people", she thought that meant people whose skin was rainbow colors, like they were painted with this. That has nothing to do with her being a carrier for color blindness, but we always laugh about that. Or perhaps it IS related to that, since her sons think people are green!

I was "outed" in kindergarten or first grade when I started coloring pictures like a brown-leafed tree and a purple sky. I guess I couldn't claim it was "artistic interpretation".

For a while I maintained a chart to keep track of which of my shirts went with which of my pants, so I wouldn't look even more geeky than I already am naturally. But getting married (and asking my wife for advice on my daily outfit) is much easier. You don't even need Excel!

 

[Bubbasteve]

I'm more of an 8 Crayola kinda guy.

LOL, I love that (I dunno why that just made me laugh, thank you)

 

[iBlue]

this thread has been a really interesting read.
i'm not color blind myself but it was really intersting to see the images (like the color wheels) getting a feel for what it would be like. my first thought was "how strange" but i guess it's not strange when you don't have anything to compare it to really. the brain finds a way to pick up the slack, that is really cool.

my husband isn't color blind per se but he has problems with colors that are subtle (isn't that just llike a man? ) he appears to notice color shade and intensity but can't figure out a powder blue from a lavender or an olive khaki from a grey and other such oddities. there is of course no excuse for his trying to leave the house wearing a tie dye shirt and plaid pants however. (he's common-sense blind)

 

[_bnkr612]

Can I make the assumtion that the color blind people are not graphic designers? Interior designers?

First thing, I thank my stars for having sight. Second, I am glad I can see the hues in their true form. It's one thing that can't be described to someone who was born without vision.

As I am sure most of you know, those of us with vision are fortunate.

I quoted freeny cause he does bring up a good point...

 

[Chundles]

Um, I'm not colour blind but I don't see a "3" in your first image Q. I see a very clear "8".

 

[dotdotdot]

First thing, I thank my stars for having sight. Second, I am glad I can see the hues in their true form. It's one thing that can't be described to someone who was born without vision.

As I am sure most of you know, those of us with vision are fortunate.

I quoted freeny cause he does bring up a good point...

It may sound corny, but the fact that I can see is the most important thing to me. I can't imagine what it would be like to not be able to.

 

[Doctor Q]

Um, I'm not colour blind but I don't see a "3" in your first image Q. I see a very clear "8".

What do you see here? I see no digits at all, which is the expected result for someone who is red-green colorblind. Others should see "45". It still feels magic to me that anybody sees digits that are clearly (to me) not there!

 

[dotdotdot]

What do you see here? I see no digits at all, which is the expected result for someone who is red-green colorblind. Others should see "45". It still feels magic to me that anybody sees digits that are clearly (to me) not there!

Again, I see a very faint 45. The 4 kind of looks seethrough, and very easy to miss, but when I stare at it, I can see it. The five was tough, but I eventually saw it.

So weird - slight colorblindness, then I finally see it.

By the way, totally irrelevant to this post, but on tshirthell.com, theres a shirt that says "F*** The Colorblind" in the circle thing above, and my friend sent it to me (of course, not knowing I [kind of] am) and I couldn't see it, so I didn't get it. Thats the only time it has negatively affected me.

 

[iBlue]

Again, I see a very faint 45. The 4 kind of looks seethrough, and very easy to miss, but when I stare at it, I can see it. The five was tough, but I eventually saw it.

So weird - slight colorblindness, then I finally see it.

it is weird to think that others aren't seeing the same things as you. for me that 45 was completely obvious even while scrolling down towards it.
now i am wondering what that tie dyed shirt i was wearing when i met doctor Q looked like to him. (it was beige and green)

 

[tweakers_suck]

What do you see here? I see no digits at all, which is the expected result for someone who is red-green colorblind. Others should see "45". It still feels magic to me that anybody sees digits that are clearly (to me) not there!

Nope. I got nothin'. I first learned that I was color deficient when I was a senior in high school. I was rejected for Navy ROTC because of it. They would have taken me in the program, but I would have to pay my own way for college

I've had a hard time at work. Not because I cannot do the job, but because one of my coworkers is such a biaaaatch. I don't work any areas where my color blindness is an issue.

For example, I study particles with a Scanning Eletron Microscope where the images are displayed in gray-scale.
It's been rough dealing with the coworker -- everyone else has been great -- but I am doing fine now.


Great thread.

 

[Chundles]

What do you see here? I see no digits at all, which is the expected result for someone who is red-green colorblind. Others should see "45". It still feels magic to me that anybody sees digits that are clearly (to me) not there!

-snip-

Yeah, I see a very clear 45 in that picture. The first one shows 8 as clear as day to me. Weird. Are you positive it's meant to be a 3?

 

[devilot]

Yeah, I see a very clear 45 in that picture. The first one shows 8 as clear as day to me. Weird. Are you positive it's meant to be a 3?

Haha. Coming from a definitely non-color-challenged viewer--

YES! A definite '3.'

 

[rendezvouscp]

Yeah, I see a very clear 45 in that picture. The first one shows 8 as clear as day to me. Weird. Are you positive it's meant to be a 3?

It's a three. I wanted to make sure, so I opened it in Core Image Fun House and played a little bit. Here were the results. While playing, I saw why you thought it might be an 8: depending on how I changed the exposure, contrast, etc. it started to look like a 8, but was very obviously never meant to be an 8 (since at the extremes the lines never connected). Note the curl of the three and how close the middle line comes to the bottom one though.

I'm not color blind: for all of the tests (here and on Wikipedia), I do fairly well (but the ones on Wikipedia are fairly light). I don't think that there's anyone in my family who's color blind; we're fairly lucky in that regard (although I have to say it must be "cool" to be color blind, at least at times).
-Chasen

 

[Chundles]

Yeah, I ran it through Photoshop and it's a three, the elongated bit in the middle was confusing me. It's a three but it's a funny looking three.

 

[asherman13]

On the left: Steve Jobs
In the middle: Steve Jobs as seen with poor red vision.
On the right: Steve Jobs as seen with poor green vision.

Only on Macrumors...

 

[Doctor Q]

Again, I see a very faint 45. The 4 kind of looks seethrough, and very easy to miss, but when I stare at it, I can see it. The five was tough, but I eventually saw it.

So weird - slight colorblindness, then I finally see it.

Enough to make the list of honor, which I'll update as the thread progresses, just for fun.

Yeah, I see a very clear 45 in that picture. The first one shows 8 as clear as day to me. Weird. Are you positive it's meant to be a 3?

That's what the instructions say. I tested the circle on a few color sighted people before I posted it (since I can't confirm that it is there myself), and they saw a 3, but several people have now said they see an 8 instead, or they aren't sure which. I think that means it is not the best-designed color test. Looks like we'll have to run more evil experiments on your eyes to find out what it means.

 

[devilot]

I think that means it is not the best-designed color test.

I think it just means that people aren't as used to more 'antiquated'-type fonts for numbers? I dunno... I saw it w/ no problems.

 

[Doctor Q]

My wife confirms that the museum painting I thought I didn't see correctly has very little red, as some of you said, so I saw it similarly to others after all!

It appears that I picked a bad example to show what I don't see. On the other hand, it's a good example of something else I get wrong: I sometimes assume I see things wrong when I don't!