Can photography or photo editing cause eye strain or affect vision in one eye?

Question

I recently had an eye exam and found that my left eye is slightly long-sighted and a bit slower to focus on nearby objects. I spend long hours at a computer, often work at night, and do a lot of photography and photo editing. During long shoots, the muscles around my eyes can feel tired or sore, and during editing my eyes sometimes get red because I realize I’m not blinking enough.

I know bright light sources like the sun or lasers can be dangerous, but can long periods of shooting, working at night, or intensive photo editing cause eye strain or lasting vision problems? Are there practical ways photographers can reduce eye strain while shooting and editing?

user24785 · Answer

You have just strained your eyes. If there is any damage, you can undo it.

Try to relax your eyes. Avoid situations with looking down or up excessively (typical when you are lying on the bed and watching TV, the worst thing you can do to your eyes...).
Avoid focusing long to one fixed distance. Imagine you have to hold a kilogram with your left hand for hours. The muscles get tired. Take breaks, go out, and look away, literally as far as possible, into the distance for ten minutes. E.g. look at the skyline.
Eat collagen. It helps to recover the elasticity of skin and eyes. No kidding. A high dose of protein + C vitamin also helps building collagen, but direct intake of special collagen products is the best, they are usually balanced.
In general, avoid fixing your focus on one point, as you are fixing your eyeball in a certain shape.

There are several exercises you can do to exercise your eye! Probably it won't be too smart to just write them all, as not doing them properly can get you some sore muscles in the eye! And that's the worst thing ever. You should find some books on eye exercises. I share three that helps me a lot (I am not an eye-specialist but I live basically on the monitor):

Look left, look right, repeat. Look up, look down repeat.
Make circles with your eyes.
The best: find some large space. Hold a finger about 30 cm away. Focus on the finger. Then focus away to infinity. Try to just not move anything else so that you learn how to do this intentionally. Focus close, focus far. It helps the muscles in your eyes to recover flexibility and elasticity of the eyeball.

NOW: Don't force! Don't try to move over the natural limits! That is not the goal at all. Never strain your eyes. This is not bodybuilding. Maybe you cannot even repeat the drill. I cannot do them easily and comfortably when my eyes are very tired. Fine. Don't force! (You should not do these at all if your eye is tired...) It is just a comfortable motion drill. Don't do it too fast. The focus far - focus close is the best drill though I found in my life. You just do near-far-near-far, and your sharp vision will get back. In fact, this also helps any long- or shortsightedness.

Again, do it with moderation. (E.g. do without repetition for a few days). It can take a few weeks, but you can undo anything you have done to your eyes.

Can photography or photo editing cause eye strain or affect vision in one eye?

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