cataracts and white balance

[DanK]

There has been a bit of discussion here about the yellowish cast created by cataracts and the shift in WB that people notice after surgery. Given the age of many people who post here, I thought I would post my experience.

I had a cataract removed from my right (dominant) eye a few days ago. The difference in WB was striking. There is a large difference between my two eyes on the blue-yellow axis. I anticipated that, although the difference was larger than I had anticipated. What I had not anticipated was a smaller shift on the green-magenta axis. Whites sometimes seem to have a slight magenta cast, and greens look less saturated.

Everyone I know who has gone through this says your brain acclimates fairly quickly, if you have both eyes done. If you don't, you get used to having a different color balance in your two eyes.

I'm going to have the second one done in a few weeks, so this just a transient problem for me. The reason I mention it is that I sat down afterwards to edit photos I had taken beforehand and realized that I didn't have a good sense of white balance for the moment, and I had shot them all with no neutral card. Normally, I can estimate pretty well without a card under most circumstances, but not for the time being.

So a word of advice: if you anticipate doing this, shoot with a neutral card for a short while before you undergo it. Then you have a way to calibrate while you get used to your new eyesight.

BTW, there is a quite noticeable difference in brightness as well, although that isn't a problem.

You can actually choose the distance you want optimized, and if you pay extra (in the US, anyway), you can have other vision problems, like astigmatism, corrected at the same time, either with a specialized lens implant or with laser surgery. I told the ophhamologist that I wanted my right (camera) eye optimized for distance, with the astigmatism corrected. It takes a while for the vision to reach its optimum, but I already have better distance vision than I have had for over 50 years. And I can finally see my entire viewfinder!

[george013]

There has been a bit of discussion here about the yellowish cast created by cataracts and the shift in WB that people notice after surgery. Given the age of many people who post here, I thought I would post my experience.

I had a cataract removed from my right (dominant) eye a few days ago. The difference in WB was striking. There is a large difference between my two eyes on the blue-yellow axis. I anticipated that, although the difference was larger than I had anticipated. What I had not anticipated was a smaller shift on the green-magenta axis. Whites sometimes seem to have a slight magenta cast, and greens look less saturated.

Everyone I know who has gone through this says your brain acclimates fairly quickly, if you have both eyes done. If you don't, you get used to having a different color balance in your two eyes.

I'm going to have the second one done in a few weeks, so this just a transient problem for me. The reason I mention it is that I sat down afterwards to edit photos I had taken beforehand and realized that I didn't have a good sense of white balance for the moment, and I had shot them all with no neutral card. Normally, I can estimate pretty well without a card under most circumstances, but not for the time being.

So a word of advice: if you anticipate doing this, shoot with a neutral card for a short while before you undergo it. Then you have a way to calibrate while you get used to your new eyesight.

BTW, there is a quite noticeable difference in brightness as well, although that isn't a problem.

You can actually choose the distance you want optimized, and if you pay extra (in the US, anyway), you can have other vision problems, like astigmatism, corrected at the same time, either with a specialized lens implant or with laser surgery. I told the ophhamologist that I wanted my right (camera) eye optimized for distance, with the astigmatism corrected. It takes a while for the vision to reach its optimum, but I already have better distance vision than I have had for over 50 years. And I can finally see my entire viewfinder!

Both my eyes are done. After the first eye a white peace of paper had 2 different colors: with one eye white and with the other yellowish or nicotine. And I don't smoke. I just kept on playing with my eyes: looking with left, looking with right. Always white surfaces.

George