What does red look like?

[Steve Pavlina]

Since I was born colorblind, I've never actually seen the color red. With some testing Erin tells me that what I perceive as red, she would label as gray. You can find some pictures that can help you see colors the way I do here:
Vischeck: About Daltonize

The two fruit pictures look essentially identical to me.

So what does red actually look like? How would you describe red? If I were to close my eyes and try to imagine red, how would I do that?

Have you ever been able to visualize a color you've never seen? For example, can you imagine what ultraviolet or infrared might look like if your eyes could perceive a broader part of the light spectrum? How would infrared look different from red?

[kthdsn]

I've discussed describing colours with several people and have never been able to come close to describing a colour without comparing it to another colour.

I could tell you that the colour red is usually a bright colour, that it stands out against most other colours, that it calls attention to itself, but that wouldn't help you to know what it actually looks like. To me, the second fruit picture looks drab and yellowish, almost like a sepia photograph.

I've also often wondered and discussed whether the colour that I see as red is the same as what everyone else sees as red. Since nobody I know has been able to describe a colour without comparing it to other colours, it's impossible to know if everybody perceives each colour in the same way. I might see a completely different set of colours to the ones that you see, but we both label them the same way.

I have tried imagining new colours, but I usually come up with bright versions of regular colours, which doesn't really count.

[Pegasus]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

So what does red actually look like? How would you describe red?

Hot, spicy, loud, vibrant, happy, fun, energetic...

[Spiritual]

Thanks for that link. I've always had some kind of issues with my eyes, but I never could imagine how colorblind people see things. The colorblind person ofcourse doesn't feel like he is missing out on something (I hope). But for me all those colors really do add to my visual enjoyment.

Anyways, describing colors is difficult ofcourse and I think we quickly relate back to our own connotations which are build by seeing the colors.

So for red I would say it's an agressive color with a lot of passion. It always disturbs me a bit somehow, it's so "out there". It isn't something mellow, red is an color that stands out. It's a real eyecatcher and for that reason I think I often find it to intrusive.

[Angela]

Steve, when you go to an art gallery with Erin, what is that like for you two, not to see the same colors?

[Steve Pavlina]

Originally Posted by Angela

Steve, when you go to an art gallery with Erin, what is that like for you two, not to see the same colors?

It rarely comes up. Most of the time I forget that most people see colors very differently than I do, and I don't think Erin is usually conscious of my colorblindness except under certain circumstances, like when we go grocery shopping and she has to pick all the fruit.

[ArthurHung]

I have always thought of red as "my" colour. So I feel pretty qualified in responding

So what does red actually look like?

Red looks powerful. Red looks like inherent drama within a person of depth, rarely subtle and a deep solid red mixed in the midst of other colours looks like it's bursting out in emotion. Red looks like a fast car moving through heavy highway traffic like it's nothing by an experienced racer, like a beautiful woman's lips.

How would you describe red?

Red is less about procurement or giving and more about pure expression. It's an aggressive colour, filled with passionate raw emotion. Red is my colour of choice for the future car that I am manifesting, a red Acura, also the colour of the jacket I am wearing right now. Red is a sexy colour when worn by a certain type of women, a colour that when mixed with my other favourite colour yellow, produces orange.

If I were to close my eyes and try to imagine red, how would I do that?

Imagine that in the past, there was a time where you were really exhausted, and with an intent of walking home to study for a test, you walked through a grocery store and suddenly with a glance, see a woman so incredibly stunning that you only realize five seconds after the fact that you kept oscillating your vision between her and the cash register, carrying the bottle of juice that you wanted to buy. You suddenly stop yourself and look at her for 2 seconds, then look away, then back at her, then away, then back, until you finally drag your sight to the cash register and head towards it because your mind isn't functioning properly, you're just so tired. Then when you go home, exhausted, you have strong feelings of regret that you didn't go up to her and talk to her because you were just too tired. That woman, is red.

Hmm, interesting, I seem to associate red with emotion when it comes to myself, and cars and women that I desire. What an awesome colour.

[Angela]

What about fiery sunsets? Do you see them as just a brightly lit sky?

[NotesMaeve]

It's definitely a color about passion, Steve. When I was a little girl, I had a friend who was colorblind. In describing colors, I could only say that red looked the way a hot strawberry tasted.

[Sam988]

To me red looks intense, royal, a color that's hard to ignore, also a feminine color in certain ways. That's as much as i can describe it...

[Life Warrior]

Originally Posted by ArthurHung

Hmm, interesting, I seem to associate red with emotion when it comes to myself, and cars and women that I desire. What an awesome colour.

Red invokes anxiety, attention to itself on a subconcious level. The opposite of a calming blue.

[Sam988]

Right now i'm eating some strawberries and a strong sunlight is all over them... what a vivid and powerful color red is. The strawberries now even seem to shine... a red shine.. when the sunlight hits them.

[seeker5]

Steve,

How would you describe the colors you see to a blind person? What is blue to you?

Also, when it comes to the traffic light, do you see the red and green light as the same? I assume you must simply look at the position of the light then to know if it's green or red.

What about at Toastmasters? I've seen one club where they reverse the position of the red and green light from what I'm used to......!

[Steve Pavlina]

I can tell red and green traffic lights apart easily. For one the green is much brighter, and it's always at the bottom. The only trouble I've had with traffic lights is being able to tell if a single flashing light by itself is red or yellow, assuming there's no positional information. One time when I was learning to drive I guessed wrong and went through a flashing red light at night without stopping. But I think that's the only time it happened.

[jamestl2]

Since everyone's eyes, optic nerves, etc. are different, I think we all perceive colors differently. I'm no eye expert, but I've always thought it was possible that someone who sees green may actually be seeing blue, maybe because of the different eye color or something.

[Mr_A]

I got a question for ya steve
when you dream do you dream in colour?

I doubt you dream in black and white

[Lauxa]

I love the link. My husband is red/green color blind and I have always wondered how he sees the world.

I would say the best way to describe red is like yellow, but more so. You see in the picture of the fruit vendor how the yellow pops out from the blue. The red would pop out just as much from the yellow, brighter and louder than the yellow. Maybe that is also how infrared looks, like another color that would pop out from the red.

[Steve Pavlina]

I dream in color and can visualize in color too, but I don't recall dreaming in different colors than I see with my eyes.

Shouldn't it be possible to dream different colors than my eyes can see? Why would I still be colorblind in my dreams? That seems very odd to me. Maybe there's some kind of multi-dimensional aspect to colorblindness, and the defect in the eyes is just a projection of a deeper limitation.

On the other hand, I read an article that colorblind people actually perform better on some visual tasks because we can perceive detail that others don't.

The light spectrum our eyes perceive is just a particular frequency band of EM radiation. It seems that in our imagination we should be able to imagine perceiving a wider band. Has anyone been able to do this?

[seeker5]

Steve,

According to that picture you linked to, the colors you see are to me ugly and bland, compared to the colors I see. What about trying to use subjective reality/LoA to remove your color blindness and see the colors you normally haven't been able to see? I've heard of illness/handicap/limitations removed through the LoA, although I haven't heard yet it been applied to color blindness. Maybe you could be the first

Your above questions has me wondering about completely blind people, how do they dream?

[UHF]

I used to colour tree bark a sort of dark green and couldn't see why the other kids were incredulous, when I was at primary school. Trying to tell colours under poor lighting and at a distance is very difficult. Also bright blue lettering on a red background and vice versa is difficult to make out the outline. It sort of glows. Other colours I mix up are dark green and mid brown, dark yellow and light green. I have absolutely no idea where beige comes from. Violet is surely just navy or possibly some kind of purple. So much for my career choices: pilot, camera operator, electrician and bomb disposal...

There are glasses and contact lenses that supposedly improve Daltonism which have been around a few years but I've yet to see any.

[Steve Pavlina]

Originally Posted by UHF

Trying to tell colours under poor lighting and at a distance is very difficult. Also bright blue lettering on a red background and vice versa is difficult to make out the outline. It sort of glows. Other colours I mix up are dark green and mid brown, dark yellow and light green. I have absolutely no idea where beige comes from. Violet is surely just navy or possibly some kind of purple.

I have those exact same issues, although I don't believe purple actually exists. I also mix up maroon and dark brown. And sometimes I can't tell a really dark red from black.

[Terumoto]

I just tried to close my eyes and imagine up a color that I had never seen before. It was difficult, I wasn't able to do it.

It always ended up being some obscure color that was very rare, but that I had experienced before.

[Bruce Achterberg]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

Since I was born colorblind, I've never actually seen the color red. With some testing Erin tells me that what I perceive as red, she would label as gray. You can find some pictures that can help you see colors the way I do here:
Vischeck: About Daltonize

The two fruit pictures look essentially identical to me.

So what does red actually look like? How would you describe red? If I were to close my eyes and try to imagine red, how would I do that?

Have you ever been able to visualize a color you've never seen? For example, can you imagine what ultraviolet or infrared might look like if your eyes could perceive a broader part of the light spectrum? How would infrared look different from red?

I frame this "problem" much like trying to explain a concept that nobody has ever experienced before (something I do frequently... nobody I speak to understands what the heck I’m talking about, so most of my conversation time is spent learning to speak their “language”, and vice versa). Therefore, before I can explain what I see, I need to know what "you" see. Essentially, I need to learn to speak your conceptual "language" so I can bend it and play around with it a bit to give you an idea of what I see.

But then the issue comes in that whatever language (ie. specific words) you use to describe the colours will be completely different from mine (ie. your "yellow" won't be my "yellow"), so we'd have to use some sort of colour scale, like the one you say you've partially memorised for when you do web/game design and then come up with some new words (something like "Steve red" and "Bruce orange" ). Then I could compare colours and blend them to create new colours for you to imagine.

I think this would be an exercise to do in person, and I'd be happy to oblige you should you ever come to Australia, or if I ever come to Las Vegas. If I had the cash I’d fly over right now and take you up on that boarding offer you mentioned a while back (rememeber? The one where the visitor pays a nominal fee and gets to discuss with you + Erin and share a toilet with one of your kids ) and we could commence this little experiment, but alas, I'm poor.

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

I dream in color and can visualize in color too, but I don't recall dreaming in different colors than I see with my eyes.

Shouldn't it be possible to dream different colors than my eyes can see? Why would I still be colorblind in my dreams? That seems very odd to me. Maybe there's some