Do your left and right eyes see the same tint?

[Duster1671]

Okay, this question isn't exactly a flashlight topic, but it's flashlight...adjacent. Apologies if this is not the best place on the forum. Anyway...

We're all familiar with the way white light can appear different in terms of tint and color temperature. Compare two lights with two different emitters and you'll see difference on the blue-yellow axis and the pink-green axis. But have you ever compared your left and right eyes?

I don't know how I discovered this, but my left eye sees white light as noticeably warmer than my right eye. With a constant light source, I can alternate covering each eye and see a subtle but perceptible difference. When I use both eyes, they blend together to somewhere in the middle.

I imagine we're dealing with a normal distribution here, with most people having little-to-no difference between their two eyes, and comparatively few having a large difference.

What are your eyes like? Have you ever looked for such a thing?

 

[kerneldrop]

My eyes do not see the same tint.

 

[hamhanded]

I can't tell a difference between each eye.

 

[3_gun]

Quick check with todays EDC .. no difference. Will try & repeat with others to see if it changes with different lights. As a side note I see the light more brightly (slightly) with my left eye BUT only while wearing my glasses

 

[richbuff]

No, but my eyes are balanced; it's my hemispheres that are unbalanced. Every four to eight years I switch the blame to the other hemisphere. Currently, I blame my left hemisphere.

 

[bykfixer]

The general section is a good place to put this, sure.

I had never noticed until today but my right does see the world in a bit warmer tint in artificial light. Will check it in natural light later today.

Edit:
In natural light my left eye sees white objects a tad bit warmer than the right.
Interesting.
End edit.

 

[Duster1671]

bykfixer - that's interesting that there's a difference between natural and artificial light. I'll have to see if that's the case for me.

I'm actually not sure if it's a warmer/cooler difference I'm seeing. It could be that my left eye sees a little more pink and my right eye a little more green. The difference is very subtle, but I can tell there's something different.

 

[louie]

I had cataract surgery in one eye (lens replaced), and for sure that eye is much cooler/bluer that the original eye! The natural eye lens yellows with age, you get a new plastic lens and the difference is stark. I can guess that natural lenses may not age the same in both eyes, as well as other medical differences.

 

[Duster1671]

The natural lens yellowing over time, and perhaps at a different rate between left and right, provides a plausible explanation for my observation. Thanks for your comment, louie!

 

[louie]

My guess is that no 2 eyeballs have the exact same color response, along with the brain processing.

 

[skid00skid00]

When looking at white, and blinking to one eye at a time, my right eye sees a slight reddish tint, and my left eye sees a slight greenish tint.

Been true for very many years.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

The cataract info is correct. The natural lens does get yellower over time and a replacement lens will restore it to something closer to the OEM response.

The eyes and brain also have a type of auto white balance mechanism. It tries to normalize whatever the dominant color temperature of the environment is. In a situation where one eye has had cataract surgery but the other hasn't, I think the brain averages the difference when both eyes are open.

 

[DaveTheDude]

I concur with Louie's report regarding the effect of a single lens' replacement. I experienced an injury to one eye in 2015, which required a lens replacement. The contrast between the colors seen through the synthetic lens and my remaining organic lens was (and no other word does this experience justice) illuminating.

Since then, I've observed during the intervening years the gradual darkening of my organic lens: the additional years of exposure to sunlight and it's natural ultraviolet component are gradually curing my organic lens, from the pale champagne tint I first noticed in 2015, through gradually deepening shades of ginger ale, to a pale pilsner, to a pale green-bronze light olive oil color.

None of this affects my normal activities, and as was commented on above, the brain averages the competing color images into a blended whole. I can say that this facility (note the positive spin) has given me a greater patience with and understanding of people who insist that their perception of a color is the "right" one.

Finally, I applaud Duster's use of the phrase "flashlight adjacent" to characterize his initial post. Perhaps the forum might establish a separate category for perception-related, flashlight adjacent discussions.

I'd give it a thumbs up.👍

 

[Lumen83]

I have no idea why but one of my eyes is slightly colorblind. Its almost like looking through sunglasses for just that one eye. I don't notice much when both eyes are open. I think my brain corrects whaterver is going on. But when I close my left eye, its obvious that my right eye doesn't see color that well.

 

[lectraplayer]

Mine don't look noticeably different, though I do often notice that they sometimes do calibrate differently, especially when looking at something of a color through one eye without doing so with the other (such as with night vision equipment, or even when using the viewfinder of my camera.)

 

[Cyp]

I don't know how I discovered this, but my left eye sees white light as noticeably warmer than my right eye. With a constant light source, I can alternate covering each eye and see a subtle but perceptible difference. When I use both eyes, they blend together to somewhere in the middle.

The image from my right eye is a fair bit warmer than the left. I notice it most when I'm looking through the viewfinder of my camera (it never occurred to me to test that with my lights.)