Fall colors/autumn colours - whatever. Anyway, it’s fall/autumn here in the south of England, the leaves have turned, and folks have been commenting on how wonderful the colors are. I have never really got this - yeah, they’re OK, interesting, nice - but wonderful? Meh. But then I got to thinking (I don’t know why it took so long to think this): I’m colorblind - maybe it’s just me?
So this is poll is a little bit of scientific research - I’m trying to compare two groups, colourblind and non-colourblind, to see how fall colors are perceived.
Just to be clear, male and female are being polled separately simply because colorblindness (the “normal” variety) is much more common in men (about 8% of men are colorblind) than in women (~0.5%) which makes gender per se a potential confounding factor to the question being polled. (If results for men and women are pooled, and women’s appreciation of fall colors is different from men’s, it will distort the result regarding colorblindness.)
MALE: I love fall colors. I am colorblind.
MALE: I love fall colors. I am NOT colorblind.
MALE: Fall colors are OK, nice, whatever. I am colorblind
MALE: Fall colors are OK, nice, whatever. I am NOT colorblind
FEMALE: I love fall colors. I am colorblind.
FEMALE: I love fall colors. I am NOT colorblind.
FEMALE: Fall colors are OK, nice, whatever. I am colorblind
FEMALE: Fall colors are OK, nice, whatever. I am NOT colorblind
Your experience, I imagine, is going to depend greatly on the type of colorblindness you experience. If you have Red/Green (the most common form) then all those lovely reds will look like the leaves didn’t change color!
I wasn’t sure which to pick. I like fall colors. But I don’t exactly LOVE fall colors. They are pretty. They are cheerful. They are a sign of the changing seasons. I am sad in years when the leaves just turn brown without getting fiery, first. But I wouldn’t actually say that I love them. (But that’s what I picked.)
Also, I hate the way polls on this board get re-sorted from most-popular to least-popular. There is often an order to the way they questions were asked, and I’d prefer if it retained that.
Now this is a whole other kettle of fish. I am red/green too, but the only times I actually struggle to differentiate between red and green is if the object is difficult to see anyway - small and moving about rapidly and randomly, maybe. Generally, no problem at all. But browns vs purples under poor/artificial light, say - that’s a real problem; some other colours under artificial light can be a problem too. So when it comes to autumn colours - what colours am I actually looking at? Are they subtly different in poor November light? Is that what I’m missing? In the end I just tell myself that my colour vision is my own experience, I don’t really know how it is different, in practice, from other people’s. But I will be genuinely interested in the poll results.
That’s what I wonder also. A long time ago I came across a website that somehow showed what a person with normal color vision saw versus what a person with various color blindnesses saw. It was weird.
While I saw most of the colors, I guess there were some I was missing and the colors weren’t as vivid for me. They were more dull in color.
I’m not colorblind and sometimes they are amazing, but sometimes only meh, and there isn’t really a rule as to what combination and shade of color will strike me as what. Sometimes a perfect blend of dazzling green, yellow, orange, and red will look too perfect and characterless, but it can go too far if the field is entirely monochromatic or otherwise drab. Just a small change in elevation and latitude can make all the difference just in a single day’s driving.
To really appreciate the fall colors you gotta be in northern New England, although southern Quebec is almost as good. This fall has been disappointing though. Generally I love them.
More or less. I have red/green, but there are degrees of color blindness. I do have trouble with the reds, unless they are standing alone. They do tend to wash out if they have a backdrop of green.
I have tritanomaly which affects my perception of blue and doesn’t make much difference looking at fall colors but I find them merely OK, nice, whatever.
I have a mild case of red/green colour blindness. I can tell the two apart very distinctly in everyday life, but I struggle with the Ishihara test - in the sense that I mistake ab 8 for a 6 because I fail to see that additional curl, or things along these lines. I’ve been tested for red/green blindness several times in my life, always wih the Ishihara test, and sometimes I’m diagnosed as colour blind and sometimes I’m not. Luckily, the only time when it really mattered (when I was getting a boating licence), I was not diagnosed as colour blind (and got my licence).
I like Autumn colours (I chose the “love it” option). I particularly like it when a single maple tree has turned bright red well before any other trees have changed. I also like the Central Otago look with autumn coloured trees lining a river or lake. Interestingly I can’t find many pictures that do it justice, maybe it’s a “have to be there” type thing.
Female, not colorblind. Voted love fall colors, because I do. They can take my breath away.
I have a brother who is red/green colorblind so they all look a bit orangish yellow most of the year to him. He can tell colors are changing because they get a bit lighter before they drop. He pretty much does everything in browns and blues and relies on a family member or store clerk to tell him if something looks good. Thank goodness no one has steered him wrong.
