# Colour blind and monitor Calibration



## vanderploeg.peter (Dec 13, 2020)

Yes, I do like photography and am Colour blind.
Not completely but weak in seperaring red and green, when area's or contrast are small. ("Deuteranopia", which is the most common kind of colour blindness, or weakness.
So, what is the best way to calibrate my monitor?
You could leave it as is, I see real life shows colours the same way.
But thats not true I think, in real life the gamut is much larger and in that case, I can seperate the colours better.
My RGB monitor has ofcourse a much smaller gamut.

So, I tried several approaches to see colours better on my monitors:

I selected the colour blind Picture mode from my LG 27UK650 monitor menu --> I saw reds and greens much better seperated, but red was very pink.
I selected Coulor filters in Windows 10 settings, and selected Red-Green (Deuteranopia). Seperating again much better, red stays red, but reds are very saturated, even half red is already 100% red. Sadly thers is no wat to tone it down a bit.
I tried the nvidea desktop coulors settings. Many controls to change, but I could not get the greyscale grey, there was always a red cast.
I used the six colours settings on my LG monitor. Shifted greens a bit away from red, magenta too, and increased most saturations.
I for, now settled on the last approach. I can seperate Red and Green much better, and no colours are washed out.
But I am afraid, when I show my editing to somebody else, it is awfully off.

One things I am wonderind if I should by a monitor with a larger gamut. Like the Asus ProArt PA328C.
On my phone, and OLED with a very high gamut, I can see all colours much better.

Has anyone it the same position as me, found a good solution?
Do you think a wider gamut monitor will help?


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## Hal P Anderson (Dec 13, 2020)

I'm colour-blind, too. I use a hardware monitor calibration device. I would have no hope of calibrating my monitors by eye.


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## clee01l (Dec 13, 2020)

Hal P Anderson said:


> I'm colour-blind, too. I use a hardware monitor calibration device. I would have no hope of calibrating my monitors by eye.



Color monitor calibrators are the way to go. They measure the frequency of the light the monitor emits and compare that to the color frequency sent. It is a pure “numbers to numbers” process. The calibrator then tunes the monitor such that the color frequency emitted equals the color frequency sent. 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## vanderploeg.peter (Dec 14, 2020)

Hmm yes, if I want to output a photo that looks best to somebody else.
But what If I want the photo to look good to me?
I would want the monitor to compensate for my defiancy.
When I now switch the monitor back to sRGB, photo's look a dull green/blue, with only very few reds in it. (to me)
And how can I edit the photo correctly if I just miss most of the reds in it?
Ofcourse, if I will send a photo to somebody else, or print it, I must switch back to sRGB to see if I have overdone anything, or if it is not not saturated enough.


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## clee01l (Dec 14, 2020)

vanderploeg.peter said:


> Hmm yes, if I want to output a photo that looks best to somebody else.
> But what If I want the photo to look good to me?
> I would want the monitor to compensate for my defiancy.


No you don't.   You want the the monitor to show true colors.   If the RGB color value of the image is a true Red, the image pixel sent to the monitor is {255,0,0}.   If the Screen pixel for that part of the image is emitting a signal of {240, 10, 10}   then it need to be recalibrated to {255,0,0}.   It does not matter how you see it or how I see it.   No one will perceive the colors the same way.   However you will process the image in Lightroom based upon how YOU perceive the color displayed on the monitor.   If you have a Red/Green deficiency, there is nothing you can do to compensate for that.   If you have a correct profile for your monitor, it might be close to sRGB but adjusted to provide accurate colors.   The older the monitor the farther it strays from accurate colors.   SRGB is an envelop  that defines a colorspace.  An sRGB icc profile is a generic profile that conforms to the color capabilities of most monitor displays.  Some modern digital monitors can display a larger range of colors that fall, outside the sRGB. envelop.  Some will be tuned to the larger AdobeRGB color space.  Monitor displays from Apple now conform to a Color space called DCI-P3 It describes an even larger envelop than AdobeRGB or sRGB.  sRGB was developed when the typical monitor was a CRT tube.  AdobeRGB was developed to express colors in a wider gamut (envelop) specifically for the capabilities of print media.


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## vanderploeg.peter (Dec 15, 2020)

clee01l said:


> No you don't.   You want the the monitor to show true colors.   If the RGB color value of the image is a true Red, the image pixel sent to the monitor is {255,0,0}.   If the Screen pixel for that part of the image is emitting a signal of {240, 10, 10}   then it need to be recalibrated to {255,0,0}.   It does not matter how you see it or how I see it.   No one will perceive the colors the same way.   However you will process the image in Lightroom based upon how YOU perceive the color displayed on the monitor.   If you have a Red/Green deficiency, there is nothing you can do to compensate for that.   If you have a correct profile for your monitor, it might be close to sRGB but adjusted to provide accurate colors.   The older the monitor the farther it strays from accurate colors.   SRGB is an envelop  that defines a colorspace.  An sRGB icc profile is a generic profile that conforms to the color capabilities of most monitor displays.  Some modern digital monitors can display a larger range of colors that fall, outside the sRGB. envelop.  Some will be tuned to the larger AdobeRGB color space.  Monitor displays from Apple now conform to a Color space called DCI-P3 It describes an even larger envelop than AdobeRGB or sRGB.  sRGB was developed when the typical monitor was a CRT tube.  AdobeRGB was developed to express colors in a wider gamut (envelop) specifically for the capabilities of print media.


Are you colour blind yourself?
If so, how do you judge the coulors (that you are weak to see) in the picture you are editing?


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## clee01l (Dec 15, 2020)

vanderploeg.peter said:


> Are you colour blind yourself?
> If so, how do you judge the coulors (that you are weak to see) in the picture you are editing?


I'm not color blind.  But no two people see the same colors the same way.   As I understand colorblindness,  color blindness can happen when one or more of the color cone cells are absent, not working, or detect a different color than normal.  AFAIK,  there is no way to mechanically or digitally correct that deficiency.


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## vanderploeg.peter (Dec 15, 2020)

Not entirely, whene you have Deuteranopia, you are sensitive to 3 coulours, but the red and green receptors are sensitive to frequencies too close together.  When for example the red saturation is slightly changed, it can suddenly pop-out and muddy brown changes to red.

So, changing settings in Windows or he monitor can help to see all the colours. Windows 10 has a setting just for that, and it works. But it is to extreme.
What also works is to filter out the frequencies between red and green, that help the brain in "seeing" them. There are even glasses for that ("Chroma").
How a coulorblind sees colours is also very, very different from normal people.


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## Victoria Bampton (Dec 17, 2020)

Many years ago, before there were good color screens, editors used to colour correct "by the numbers" using the numeric readouts like those found under the Histogram. That could be a good solution for you.

Or if it was me, I might concentrate on making amazing B&W images rather than debating the colours.


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## vanderploeg.peter (Dec 22, 2020)

ViewSonic Partners with TÜV SÜD to Develop the Testing of a Color Blindness Feature in Monitors / ViewSonic
Perhaps that might help.
I am also thinking about buying a monitor with as wide as possible gamut. Thats helps me on my phone.
I am trying to take a better watch at the numbers below the Histogram in LR Classic. That indeed might help.
Black and white is not my thing, I really do like colours! But, I will give it a try, when I have a picture that might work in B&W.


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## mariah1902 (Dec 29, 2020)

There are some softwares by w


vanderploeg.peter said:


> Yes, I do like photography and am Colour blind.
> Not completely but weak in seperaring red and green, when area's or contrast are small. ("Deuteranopia", which is the most common kind of colour blindness, or weakness.
> So, what is the best way to calibrate my monitor?
> You could leave it as is, I see real life shows colours the same way.
> ...


There are some software by which you can select the colors that you cannot  see and they will try to make you see the best possible way to show you the colors you need to see. I do not know the exact details about how the software actually works but to be honest you can give it a try. Search it up about your problems and you will be offered with some of the software like this. Just choose one of them.


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## vanderploeg.peter (Jan 3, 2021)

mariah1902 said:


> There are some softwares by w
> 
> There are some software by which you can select the colors that you cannot  see and they will try to make you see the best possible way to show you the colors you need to see. I do not know the exact details about how the software actually works but to be honest you can give it a try. Search it up about your problems and you will be offered with some of the software like this. Just choose one of them.


Mariah,
To which software are you referring? I did a lot of searching, but found no software thats addresses this.


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## Kierphoto (Jan 3, 2021)

There are no Correct colours, and we percept colours differently, the same way as we have different faces.

But it is a good idea using a standard associated with the same program giving an idea when exchanging images so we percept the same “wrong” or “right” way and to have a:

Color showing standard for adjustment to the users perception
Color viewing standard for the lookers perception
Between different user platforms using Lightroom
Calibrating the computer screen is a calibration of the screen AND the computers graphic card. (Connecting the screen to another computer/graphic card demands a recalibration)

The calibration does not influence the backlight of the screen, but adjust the internal intensity numbers of the RGB pixels.

Measuring the color values in Photoshop (0-255) og in Lightroom (1-100) your are measuring
on the graphic card, not on the computer screen. So your screen might be completely green, but you will still se the same number.

Having calibrated your computer screen in Lightroom gives the delight that you with “colour blindness” see the same “wrong” colors, the same “wrong” way on another calibrated computer working with Lightroom Classic.

If you want a printed surface to show same colours on different calibrated platforms I would recommend:

ttps://www.datacolor.com/colorreader/

- We alle see “wrong” colours when we think we are right.


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## vanderploeg.peter (Jan 5, 2021)

I did buy a Spyder X Pro and calibrated my screens (and discarded my manual OSD calibrations).
This realy helps to see more detail!
I now toggle in and out of Windows Colourblind settings with Ctrl-Windows-C.
Having it on greatly helps to see more colours, but toggle it off, to see if photo's look right that way too.
But I am still in doubt if I will buy a monitor with a much bigger gamut (than sRGB monotots I have now).


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