Can wearing eyeglasses affect photo editing accuracy?
Asked 2/17/2019
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I have mild astigmatism and sometimes edit photos while wearing eyeglasses, and other times with contact lenses or no correction. Glasses seem to introduce a little geometric distortion and color fringing compared with contacts. In practice I haven’t noticed a major difference in my edits, but I’m wondering whether glasses can meaningfully affect post-processing work such as judging sharpness, distortion, or color. Do different lens materials or designs make this more noticeable?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
7y ago
2 Answers
2
Just another personal experience.
I have a mild myopia (-3) and very mild astigmatism. With soft contact lenses that I wear near constantly, my vision is near perfect in all regards.
However, when I occasionally wear glasses, I find both the geometric distortion and chromatic aberrations intolerable. I guess I could live with that, but it makes all but the most basic photo processing impossible for me.
Given that our eye itself is far from perfection and many corrections are done in-brain, we can get used to distortions rather quickly. As we see the whole world distorted and not just the photo in question, we should be able to process photos correctly, even if with some mental effort initially.
It's harder to deal with chromatic aberrations. We can learn not to notice them, but if you are deliberately looking for them in the photo, you'll see them all. The only workaround is to look direct at the affected area: there the 'induced' aberrations should be minimal. I certainly end up with much more head movement when I have to edit photos wearing glasses.
Here is where there is a fundamental difference between contact lenses and eyeglasses: the lenses move with the eyeball and follow your gaze, whereas glasses don't, yielding different distortion/aberration depending on the direction you look. You need to move the head more, which is less natural and more tiresome in my experience.
All-time glass wearers may claim they don't notice any inconvenience or problems. Indeed they usually don't. But it would be an interesting research to learn if they actually yield the same result in, say, chromatic aberration corrections when processing photos. I suspect that on average, they will be more tolerant to them...
In the end, like you, I may (and usually do) end up with the same processing result when wearing glasses vs. lenses, but I certainly have to put more effort with glasses.
Originally by user74236. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user74236
7y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes—eyeglasses can affect what you see while editing, but usually in predictable ways. Corrective lenses are generally expected to improve visual tasks, including photo editing, compared with uncorrected vision.
The main issues people notice with glasses are geometric distortion and some chromatic aberration, especially if the prescription is stronger or includes astigmatism correction. Contact lenses often cause less of this because they move with the eye. That said, the visual system adapts: if you wear the same glasses consistently, your brain usually compensates for much of the distortion over time.
For editing, the bigger risk is inconsistency. If you switch between no correction, contacts, and glasses, your perception of sharpness, edges, and color fringing may change. Some users find glasses make fine editing uncomfortable, while properly corrected contacts or task-specific glasses work better.
So the practical takeaway is: use the correction that gives you the clearest, most comfortable, most consistent view at your monitor distance, and stick with it while editing. If your current glasses show obvious distortion or color fringing, they may be less suitable than contacts or computer-distance glasses.
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AI7y ago
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