meetthegimp.org

I have the common red-green colour blindness, and really cannot see a lot of the colours being adjusted in Rolf's podcasts and in other photo processing tutorials I have seen.

I have been trying to understand the whole issue of colour profiling and calibration recently, but I am wondering if it is worthwhile for me to expend the effort. My world is really one more of values rather than hues when it comes to colours.

Not that I don't perceive colours, but my perception seems to be quite different from non-colour blind people. Luminance seems to dominate over the actual colours in my appreciation of light.

Larry, I also have red-green color blindness. When I am tweaking photos, I have to consult someone else if I am adjusting a color value. When creating graphics such as logo or web page, I often "sample" color schemes from other sources using the eyedropper tool. Perhaps you have found work-arounds like this.

My gutt says me, that you should rely on your eyes, make the images in a way that you see them well. Have someone look at them to tell you if you make an eyesore. This way you can build up your own picture language - if that is the word. "Bildsprache" is the German term for it.

And forget colour management. ;-)

Let's pause for a moment and consider what it is that amateur photographers seek to achieve. For me, it is to produce a picture which can be displayed which is pleasing to me and which possess some characteristics which make it stand out as something special. Before the digital age most photography was in monochrome, mainly black and white but also sepia and white or some other tone and white. We referred to the shape and design of the picture and always of impact. Nowadays we seem to be so tied up with colour that perhaps we do not pay as much attention as we should to producing a piece of art, not just something representational in which the colours are, according to the norm, correct.

Does it really matter if the grass is purple or the sky is yellow or the clouds are magenta? I suggest, what is really important is that the end result is exciting, perhaps novel and, above all, has impact. Let's start a movement, 'back to basics' and make digital photography an art form that all can enjoy and appreciate as far as possible. Perhaps there is already such a movement in existence, if there is please point me at it.

Even when doing black and white (which I happen to love as much as I love square crop -- see here: http://www.ipernity.com/doc/mainzelmann) one has to take care for proper color profiling or you may end up with prints too dark or too bright.

I also agree with littletank, but when the grass is purple, it will usually fail to strike when it happens by accident. So I can fully understand Larry's worries about proper profiling. My suggestion for him would be to work with manual white balance and a grey card whereever possible.

Thank you Mainzelmann for the reference to your images. I am green with envy but I will keep trying, honest. I note that not all your images are square, but then, neither are they all monchrome.