Photography and low vision

Tips for doing photography with a vision problem.

There are many kind of vision problems. And many people think they arean absolute impediment for photography. This is not the case. As long as there is not total blindness, light and form can be used to take pictures.

I suffer an optical neuritis, see this page to get and idea of the limited vision I have.

Even if you have problems for seeing detail, color, and light, you can use the following tips to do photography.

Camera controls and film loading

Learn all buttons on your camera, so it is not necessary to see them in order to use them. Use loups in case of necesity. Use your hands to indentify controls. If your camera is new or your unfamiliar with your camera, use an assistant to indentify controls and memorize them.

Camera Manuals and photography magazines

Use loups for reading manuals. Use electronic magnifiers like Max and Jordy systems.

Camera readings and lens rings

Use loups. Also memorize a reading and count how many times you move a setting up or down. For example: you set to 1/500, moving two times down you will get 125 (asumming the camera uses 1 stop for every movement)

Focusing

One of the most difficult things to do with low vision problems is focusing. Try to use an Auto focus camera. In order to focus manually, move focusing ring to the best focusing position you can see. And use small apertures to widen depth of field (the range of focusing distance) . Use ISO 400 film (or equivalent in a digital camera) so you can use small apertures.

And... who says you need focusing? Experiment avoiding perfet focusing. Art is not llimited to perfect focus.

Composing

Try to visualize the result using what you can see. Most of the time you only need the silhoute of your subject to get a succesful picture. If you want to capture detail, but you can not see it, visualize the detail in your mind and use this mental image for anticipating the final result.

Choosing a subject

You can use anything you can see for subjects. But if you want to go beyon what you see use an assistant. Your assistant can help you see with some suggestions from you. Ask him details of the surroundings. Ask him if there is an interesting color, or person or pattern. Your assistant can help you get closer to the subject, so you can see something and compsose properly using the description supplied by your parnter and whatever you can see. Use a telephoto to see detail in your scene.

Pictures and negatives

Use loups or glass magnifiers. There are all sort of loups from 2X to 30X you can use to see details in prints and negatives.

Using computers

Computers are the best tool for photography with a low vision probelm. Using a negative scanner you can convert your negatives into digital. Use a screen magnifier (like ZoomText) to magnify the screen. You can process your pictures using software (Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro).

Color

Use what you can see. If you are not sure of the balance of colors and harmony, take the picture anyway, you can check it later on your computer.

Internet

Use a screen magnigier like ZoomText