Eyeglasses

[Pete JF]

Things are a changing in the eyeballs!

I've been using 125 readers for a while and suddenly i need to move up.

I just can't get a handle on this concept though...what is the best policy for evaluating prints as far as reading glasses go?  Obviously, I want the folks who are viewing my prints to see what I want them to see. Sometimes I put on some overpowered glasses that I use for reading fine print...if I look at a print with these things on it kind of scares me because I begin to see TO much detail..dots dithers and artifacts and such. Stuff I don't see when I have on my "normal" reading utensils.

I'm wondering what to shoot for here. The person with average eyesight? How does one determine this?

Seems like when we were printing traditionally this issue wasn't much of an issue...except for spotting dye marks...

observations please...are any of you thinking about this?

[Henrik Paul]

A human being can't see 'too sharply'. Either you have perfect eyesight, or you need glasses to correct your sight. Therefore, I can't adjust my prints to those blurry-sighted of us. If they miss some fine detail in a print, fine, don't buy it, but if they see detail I did not intend to put in the print I would be ashamed of myself.

I don't really need glasses, but I have a pair. They're corrected for 0.25 diopters and 0.25 for some refractive error (cylindrical error) for both eyes. The values are very fine and many of my friends not wearing glasses can't make out the difference when wearing my glasses or no glasses. But for me, when first walking outside with the glasses, a whole new world of detail was revealed before my eyes.

So, my recommendation would be to get used to those 'overpowerful' spectacles of yours and retouch your images accordingly.

[alainbriot]

If you look at a print from very close you will see artifacts, etc. larger.  This may be the case with reading glasses.  It has more to do with viewing distance than with the actual sharpness of a print.  It is sort of looking at a print with a magnifier. While this can and is done, it is not the viewing distance the majority of your audience will use.

[mcanyes]

This might help:

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article...g_distance.html

[Richard Morwood]

It's a case of getting the right 'tool' for the job. Just as you choose the most appropriate camera &/or lens for the photo you are taking, think of your glasses in the same way. Glasses for reading can be different to glasses for the computer which in turn can be different to glasses for model making/sewing/painting/music/etc. Different visual tasks at differing distances.
As an optometrist I am constantly amazed at the lack of attention given to spectacles, especially by photographers. They often seem to have a total disregard for accurate prescriptions, AR coatings, aspheric lens designs, etc, when it comes to spectacles.
Yet most eyewear is used more frequently than any other optical device (cameras, binoculars, telescopes,etc) but is purchased in a 'make do' manner.
Visit an optometrist and tell them what it is you want to be able to see and how far away  you want to see it. They will then be able to prescribe glasses accordingly, giving you the best sight in both eyes at the same time, which invariably involves different prescriptions in each eye, often not just as simple as spherical corrections either(ie incorporates a cylinder component too).
How do you know how good your lenses/prints/film/etc are if you are looking at them through inaccurate spectacles. Would you put just any old filter on the front of your camera lens? Treat your eyes with the same respect you do a camera lens and you might just be surprised by what you really can see and how much easier visual tasks become!
I'll get off my soap box now!
Regards
Richard

[Pete JF]

It's ok Rich,

I have been giving this much attention and have visited an Optometrist. I got a prescrip for a pair of reading goggles that were matched to my eyes. I was told, based on what they saw, that they should be good for the work I do as well.

I tried these things but they gave me the willies. My left eye is not as strong as my right. I tried but i couldn't get used to the damn things, they made me very uncomfortable. I talked to the Opt that prescribed them...she checked me again and couldn't really offer me anything that made me comfortable. The only things Im comfortable in are the regular, off the shelf glasses, equal power in both sides.

Im trying to deal with this via the doc..perhaps I need a second opinion.

At this point i need to clarify my question as nobody really seems to get this point. I'm fearing that if I don't have the proper set of glasses, power wise, that folks with somewhat normal eyesight will be seeing some crap that i think is ok...mainly? sharpening issues...artifacts from retouching, junk in general introduced from digital crapping around on an image.

Sharpening, for me, needs to be subtle and convincing. I want to know that Im not oversharpening or undersharpening because of the glasses Im wearing, to one extreme or the other.

My visit to the OPT didn't yield anything but a literal headache and an uneasy, off balance feeling. If I wore them long enough it was torture. We tried some different combos on my second visit and things were not much better. I'm thinking that my brain has become extremely adept at compensating for the skewed eyeballs. Things out in the world away from my head look fine to me...computer and print viewing distance is different story.

Wow, I put out some bait and got an actual Optometrist. More thought on this, Richard, would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Pete

[Richard Morwood]

Hi Pete
It was presumptious of me to assume that because you were wearing 'readymades'  you hadn't been to an optometrist. Appologies for that.
Regarding headaches and general unease with your 'correct' prescription. That can come from a variety of sources.
Assuming that the strength was 'correct' it may be that you are indeed very adept at coping with your "skewed eyeballs". If you have one eye noticably better than the other you brain may be very good at suppressing the weaker one. Your glasses, being accurate in each eye, may have made it more difficult to ignore this information and lead to 'confusion' - discomfort, unease, etc. Different strengths of lenses also give different magnification effects and again this can create problems for some people where the brain is receiving different sized images from each eye of the same object. Making a nice 3D image with this information can be problematic for some.
The muscle balance between the eyes can also be altered from your 'normal' by glasses that are different to what you are used to. Again causing an unease, or worse. This doesn't make them wrong just different and the muscles that control eye movements can take a while to adjust accordingly.
One simple test to see if your new 'accurate' glasses are giving your eyes a 'teamwork' problem is to try using only your good eye with the specs. Put a piece of tissue behind the lens of your weaker eye to occlude it and try reading/looking at photos etc to get the idea of whether the quality is actually better than the +1.25 specs. If it is you may need more of a compromise/balancing lens in the other eye to reduce confusion and mailtain teamwork rather than an 'accurate' one.
I think your eyesight would have to be fairly poor for you to miss artefacts in your photos that others then see and I feel that your problems may be more to do with visual comfort than visual acuity.
Hope this makes some sort of sense.
Regards
Richard

[MarkKay]

I am a physician but not an ophthalmologist (although I know of at least one LL member who is).  As one ages, it is not uncommon for your vision to change over time. These are due to normal aging processes.  I will restrict my discussion to normal aging  changes that have an effect on close up vision. THings get more complex of course depending on the specifics.  Most of the time, unless there is some specific disease process, vision becomes  stable by the late 40s or early 50.  The dioptic corrective lenses that can be obtained in most drug stores are fine as reading glasses (or close up viewing) if the change in vision is the same in both eyes.  However, it is not uncommon for visionary changes to be different in each eye. In this case, you will need a prescription.  It is recommended that you have your eyes checked by an ophthalmologist every 2 years or so provided there are no specific problems. I think everyone should do this but even more important for photographers .  I finally broke down about 5-6 years ago and got a set of reading glasses because my arms were not long enough .  I have to change the prescription once in that time period. I use them to read or look closely at prints i have made.  

Things are a changing in the eyeballs!

I've been using 125 readers for a while and suddenly i need to move up.

I just can't get a handle on this concept though...what is the best policy for evaluating prints as far as reading glasses go?  Obviously, I want the folks who are viewing my prints to see what I want them to see. Sometimes I put on some overpowered glasses that I use for reading fine print...if I look at a print with these things on it kind of scares me because I begin to see TO much detail..dots dithers and artifacts and such. Stuff I don't see when I have on my "normal" reading utensils.

I'm wondering what to shoot for here. The person with average eyesight? How does one determine this?

Seems like when we were printing traditionally this issue wasn't much of an issue...except for spotting dye marks...

observations please...are any of you thinking about this?
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