Color blindness and lab work

[Moopheus]

I don't have my own darkroom now, though I hope that I will in the forseeable future. In the past when I've worked in a darkroom it's always been b&w. Now I wonder about the possibility of using color. I like color, but I can't see some of it, because I am color blind. In particular I don't see green very well. In my world, grass is orange, traffic lights are white, and bananas are yellow. So I guess my question is, is it possible to do color printing with color blindness? Are there tools that can help compensate? Or should I just do whatever looks good to me, and not worry about what it looks like to the rest of you?

 

[kraker]

I don't have my own darkroom now, though I hope that I will in the forseeable future. In the past when I've worked in a darkroom it's always been b&w. Now I wonder about the possibility of using color. I like color, but I can't see some of it, because I am color blind. In particular I don't see green very well. In my world, grass is orange, traffic lights are white, and bananas are yellow. So I guess my question is, is it possible to do color printing with color blindness? Are there tools that can help compensate? Or should I just do whatever looks good to me, and not worry about what it looks like to the rest of you?

By the sound of it, you suffer from a different type of colour blindness than me (I suffer from the red/green type). It's not much help to you, but personally, I'm happy to stick to B&W. Then again... I'd say: just do what looks good to you, that makes it your view on the world, your pictures, your art. If you want to do commercial work where others expect to get the "normal" colours, then you have a problem...

As for tools that help to compensate... I'm not aware of any (darkroom) tools in this area, but here's a link that I have used more than a few times in the past to show others how I see the world: Dead Link Removed. Still, not a tool to compensate, but at least a nice tool to raise awareness to colour blindness.

 

[Bob Carnie]

I do not think this would be a problem for most colour printing applications. For example , cross process work is totally colour incorrect in most applications,. I have see colour variences in archetectual and street photography that does not have to be exact.* Street pavement is always a tone of grey, tree and concrete blocks are shades of nuetral tone, fleshtone and certain colours can be balance with an onboard timer or if you are printing digitally the PS tools have excellent ways of nuetralizing a colour scene for a starting point.
Even in landscape if you can set the mood correctly with your imagery exact colour balance in not an issue.
Include a nuetral grey or a colour that is not out of your ability to see correctly in your scene, this would be a very good reference point for your colour correction.
I have been colour correcting for thirty some years now and I will still show prints to others around me and ask for their input. As well I do have a colour ring around posted in my working area.
Make a good colour ring around and mount it in your printing area there is more than enough information on the chart to help you bring an inbalanced print back into normal colour balance.
The very first thing to do in colour printing is to have the density correct , from there it is a matter of simple choice of picking the colours that are incorrect. With a *proper* ring around you will have enough information of the colours that you do see correctly to make a decent decision.
I would definately move forward with colour printing if I were you and had a desire to do so.
Most people do not understand the colour theory and I think that this is a mistake because it is really helpful to totally understand how colour works photographically rather than the guidlines for colour painting .
I also have a chart for quick reference of the colour circle posted in my colour correction area that I refer to constantly when mixing colours for balancing and image or when I want to enhance and image, this chart is invaluable.
good luck and have fun with colour

 

[Nick Zentena]

The newer colour analyzers can more or less auto program themselves. You can then make prints by just using the analyzers.

My Colorstar 3000 is accurate enough I just follow it's lead and print. Filling up a print processing drum. Then I go process. It gets the job right. The down side is you'll need a bit of time to learn how to use it.

One other potential problem is picking the areas to analyze. If you can tell different colours apart then I think you'd be okay. Even if you aren't sure what the colours are.

But aren't bananas are yellow?

 

[Moopheus]

Bananas are yellow, except when they are not quite ripe, when they have a greenish tinge (at least, so I am told, usually by my wife after I have come back from the grocer) that is invisible to me.

Indeed, in Photoshop I am learning to look at the numerical channel data and use some of the other tools to compensate; if there are darkroom tools that will perform similar tasks, maybe I can learn to use them.

 

[Photo Engineer]

At Kodak, all employees were checked for color blindness. Those that had this problem were directed away from direct work with color materials. I knew several very fine emulsion people who were color blind.

Just as a side note, deaf people were discouraged from darkroom work. You would be surprised by how many cues we get from sound when in the dark that are useful.

PE

 

[pentaxuser]

I'd endorse Nick comments about the colourstar 3000. Without going into all the details it is possible to follow the procedure for producing a series of grey strip "prints" which the analyser measures. Once you have the correct measurements then you have it calibrated for producing neutral colours i.e as they really are without a cast. They may seem a little cold but only because most people like "warm" colours - vivid reds and tanned skin for example. Yes they will look different to you than to non colour blind viewers but they won't comment on "funny" colour casts.

Of course it begs the question of whether it worth the expense to produce coour prints which others will judge as OK but you won't have the benefit of seeing as they are.

It all depends on the question: For whom do you produce prints?

There's very few subjects for which colour wins hand down in the sense that without colour it is impossible to appreciate, even partially, what you are looking at. Maybe butterflies are the exception as most look alike without the colours to distinguish. Even most insects and flowers are distinguished by size and shape.

pentaxuser