PHOTOGRAPHY FOR THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED

PHOTOGRAPHY FOR THE VISUALLY  IMPAIRED

Over the years I have had a good number of friends who were classified as being "legally Blind,"  along with a number of people who were totally blind.  I have also know a good number of people who were visually impaired, meaning they wore glasses and whose eyesight was still short of being normal, even with glasses, and for these people and others I have written this blog.   In this little book I will demonstrate how even if your visually impaired, even legally blind, you can enjoy the art of photography, ev en if you can't see what it is your photographing, and while at first that may sound insane, I am here to tell you it is possible, but does require patience.

First, a bit about me - I was born legally blind, the result of a rare eye diaise that is also a progressive disease, meaning with each passing year I continue to lose a little more eyesight.  I also suffer from severe eye stigma, which means I have no control over my eyes, they are constantly jumping left to right, up and down, making it impossible for me to focus on any one subject and is the reason I don't like attempting to look someone in the eyes, it is something I can't do.  On top of this, I also suffer from floaters, a condition that has worsened over the years.  Floaters are tiny circles that "float" over your eyes, making what you do see appear blurred or out of focus.  I tell you this for a good reason, if I can over-come all that and still take amazing photos, then so can you, never let your disability be a stumbling block or close doors to you - you can do this.

So what I see is shadows, out of focused shadows at that, so how do I take the photos I take?  I employ the use of a photo-buddy, a person who understands in order for me to first take a photo, they need to describe what it is I might be interested in photographing.  If I am at the town pier, for example, they might tell me of an unusual yacht out in the harbor, where, I will reply, and standing at my side, point a stretched arm, pointing in the direction where the yacht is.  I in turn will use their arm much like one uses a compass, lining up my camera with their arm, the next part is up to me, as I try and pick out a shadow that might be a yacht, this is where very powerful 300m or larger lens come into play, bringing far off shadows much closer.  I still only see shadows, even with the use of these powerful lens, but it allows me to try and pick out one that might be a yacht.  Picking out such a shadow is made easier if no other objects or boats are near the subject, and I begin shooting photos.  If other objects are nearby, it gets really tricky and once again my Photo-buddy comes into play, as I take the photos they keep an eye on my camera screen, if they see that instead of taking photos of a yacht I am instead taking photos of something else, they simply inform me I need to be shooting a little more to my left of right, which helps me zero in on the right shadow.

As you can see, the use of a photo-buddy is key for me to take great photos, they are my eyes and their outstretched arm is my compass that helps me find my target.  A photo buddy should be someone who understands your limitations and who has a great deal of patience.  They also have to be there as a guide, if you begin taking photos of the wrong subject.  And depending on how limited your eyesight is, it will mean making mistakes;  for instance, if my photo-buddy points out a deer in the woods, I will be faced with many nearby shadows and might begin shooting photos of a large boulder or a nearby bush, but with help my helper guides me to the deer, but even then I may get only part of half of the deer in the frame, which is why I take 20 to 30 photos of each subject I photography, out of 30 photos I am likely to get one or two really good shots.

In my case, and maybe in yours, the smaller the shadow the harder it is to take the photo.  Birds present a major challenge, it is not impossible, but takes a lot more guidance from my helper, because even with a 300m lens, there is limitations to what shadows I can see.  This brings up a story of one trip I took into Acadia National Park, I had a different photo-buddy with me that day and they spotted a woodpecker up in a tree.  They pointed and I lined up my camera but could not see anything but a jig-saw of shadows, mostly tree branches and leaves.  I took about 30 photos in the direct they had pointed when they spoke up, nice photos of tree branches, when you going to take photos of the bird?  We laughed, and I admitted I could see no shadow of a bird, so they aimed the camera for me and I then took photos of a bird I could not see even the shadow  of.  Sometimes seeing the right shadow may be as simple as changing the position from which your standing, moving to a new shooting location will do one very important thing, it will change the background of the photo, which my be all it takes for you to get the right photo.

The single biggest obstacle   I face, besides only being able to see shadows, are objects which come between me and what I want to focus, a flag pole, a wire fence, a tree branch or a tall flower, anything that comes between you and the subject you want to shoot can easily through your cameras focus off and instead of focusing on a deer, lets say, your camera focuses on a branch or flower.    There is little you can do to prevent this, if your eyesight is very limited, other then keep changing the position your shooting from, which is something I do often, moving a little to my left, then to my right, at some point if you do this and take enough photos one or two will come out.

EQUIPMENT

If your visually impaired, your camera equipment is going to be key to your ability to take great photos.  A standard point and shoot camera simply will not be powerful enough for many, not even one with a 10 times zoom.  I would suggest you either get a bridge camera, they begin at around $150 and up, or a DLSR camera.

The advantages of a bridge camera are they offer both auto and manual settings, manual setting is useless for many who are visually impaired for good reasons, they can't see good enough to see when the photo is properly in focus.  But auto setting is as easy to use as any point and shoot camera, you simply set the camera dial on "auto" and your set to take photos, the camera decides what the proper camera settings will be.  Many bridge cameras also offer a power zoom range, with no lens to change, with some offering a range of 25 to 50 times zoom.  That is a lot of zoom, enough to aim at the moon and get photos of the moon creators, but there is a downside.  These bridge cameras photos tend to get noticeably soft the further you zoom out.

The DLSR option is the best option, providing you can afford one, though you could get a SLR, but these cameras are very costly.  A good new DSLR camera is the Canon Rebel, it has a long established history as being a dependable camera that takes very sharp photos.  I would recommend the Canon Rebel T6i,  you can get it in kit form that includes a new camera, one to two kit lens and a battery and battery charger for under $600 if you shop around.  A word of caution here, do not confuse the canon T6 with the Canon T6i, the "i" means the camera is a newer form of that camera and includes important updates.  For example, the Canon T6 makes use of an older out of date senor, while the Canon T6i has a newer censor, in all cases the camera with an "i" will be the better choice.  

And if your visually impaired, there are a few issues with photos that are common with many cameras that the Rebel Cameras remove,  Automatic lens aberration correction for vignetting, lateral color fringes, distortion and diffraction are automatically corrected when you take each photo, meaning that is one less issue you have to deal with, which is a great feature for me, since I am also color blind, meaning purple fringing in my photos is something I can not see, but thankfully my Canon camera eliminates the issue for me.

Bridge cameras have lens that do not remove but offer a big zoom distance.

I recently moved from the Canon T6i to the newer Canon T7i, as many of the reviews claimed the photos were slightly sharper with the T71, however I have not been able to detect the difference, a shadow is a shadow, but I still want the T7i for the people who view my photos, I want my work to be the best it can be.  Because most Canon Lens fit different Canon cameras, I was able to save a lot of money by simply buying a Rebel T7i body, the lens from my T6i all fit perfectly onto it.  Besides Canon lens, you also can purchase third party lens which also fit Canon cameras, from companies like Tamron, Segma, and many others.  Then there is the used lens option, I purchase all my lens used, listed in excellent or like new condition, and you can get many very good camera lens with zooms up to 300m or longer for between $50 to $150 each, a couple of my lens came in around $200 each but had such good reviews I bought them and have not been sorry.

A lens with a 300m zoom like the one above will bring what you can see a lot closer, this lens sells used for about $200 on Ebay, or $400 new.

A word about lens, if your visually impaired, you want your lens to have some sore of "IS" on the lens, or image stabilization, which means even if you or your camera moves slightly, your photos will still come out sharp and nice.  A lens without some type of "IS" system means even the slightest movement ends up with a blurry photo.  Canon calls its stabilization system IS, third party companies may call their image stabilization systems by another name, but if their lens has such a stabilization system on the lens it should be clearly stated in the lens description, if it is not you can assume that lens does not have IS on it.  The kit lens that come with most Canon cameras have IS on the kit lens.

If you know little or nothing about camera lens, which ones does what, just a word on this, the lower the lens focal length, the wider the photo, so a lens with a 24m lens will be a great choice for general photography like family gatherings, photos at the park and landscape photos,  as it takes a much wider photos, while a lens with a 50m focal length will take a photo of a smaller area, still a great lens but just covers less area in the photos.  

The lens above is the Canon 24m Prime lens, a Prime lens can not be zoomed at all but because it can't be zoomed they take sharper photos.  This lens is a great choice for anyone who is visually impaired because at the low end of 24m, it means it takes a wide photo, so almost anything or any moment you want to capture, with this lens you merely point in the general direction and take your photo.  You do want to check and see that your lens AF/MF switch is placed forward, on nearly all lens that means you want the button slid forward as pictured.  This is also called a pancake lens because it is so thin and weights nearly nothing.  It sells new for around $125.

The higher the number goes, the smaller the area gets, but the closer you get to your subject, with many professional photographers recommending the Canon 55m - 250m lens as a great all around lens which produces very sharp photos, and for many of you, this may very well be the perfect lens for you, allowing you to take a photo on the wider end of 55m and zoom in as close to 250m, getting real close to your subject.  My eyesight is so bad I need a 300m lens.  And like bridge cameras, the more you zoom into your subject, the softer your photo will become, but no where as soft as bridge camera and many may not even notice it on a DSLR, these lens are that good.  One other problem is going to big, too much zoom, on a lens with IS you can still hand hold a camera and get great photos up to 400m, but in most cases, IS ends at 400m, meaning you will need to make use of a tripod on any lens over 400m, that said, most of you will never purchase a super zoom lens because they only work in manual setting, and manual is not where you want to be is your visually impaired.

The opreka lens above has a zoom of up to 500m, which is huge, and there are other lens in this class with much larger zooms, however if your visually impaired, this is not a good lens choice because lens with a zoom above 400m are mainly manual lens, meaning it can only be used in manual setting and you have to see good enough to focus the photo yourself.  Many of these super zoom lens also require the use of a tripod to take a good in focus photo and do not have any form of IS system.  With many of the so called super lens, it is the lens that attaches to a tripod, not the camera body and these type of lens have a special attachment ring for this purpose.The one above starts new at around $80 new.

Image stabilization is extremely important, and Canon places it into many, but not all, of its lens, with most older lens not having it.  For this reason, some photographers purchase cameras that have image stabilization that is built right into the camera, meaning each and every lens you buy for that camera will produce nice photos each and every time.  Cameras that place it into the body of the camera include Sony, Pentax and Olympus.  Some swear by these cameras, but others, usually Canon users, claim you get slightly better results by having the IS in the lens and not the camera body, in the end I believe it comes down to brand loyalty, a Sony owner will always be a Sony owner and a Canon owner will always be a Canon owner.

While I purchase my cameras new, I have spoken to many who purchased their cameras used and say they have been very happy with buying used, putting the money saved  toward better lens.  The key is buying from a reputable dealer, I make all my purchases on ebay, make certain the dealer has at least a 98 or better positive rating, and only purchase used lens rated excellent or like new condition and have never encounter a problem with any of my used lens.  

 NEW ADVANCEMENT IN CAMERAS

The newest rage in cameras are something called mirror less cameras. DSLR and SLR cameras make use of a mirror, when changing lens you need to switch lens fairly quickly because the mirror in the camera becomes exposed as you switch lens and you do not want dust or pollen getting onto the surface of that mirror.  You also do not want to ever touch or attempt to wipe the  mirror, as moving it out of place even a little will mess up your camera.  Photographers make use of a small blower which will remove most dust from the lens, and Canon  Reble Cameras have a built in mirror cleaner which cleans the mirror every time you turn the camera on or off.  If a blower or built in cleaner can't clean the mirror you want to take it to a camera shop and let them clean it.  Mirror less cameras don't have this mirror issue because they don't employ the use of mirrors.  And from what I have read, mirror less cameras take as good and sharp of a photo as a DSLR, but mirror-less cameras have downsides.  First they are extremely light compared with most DSLR cameras.  A second, and bigger issue of these  lens, they are smaller lens then you find on a DSLR camera, meaning there is no focal lens with a reach of 300m, at least not as of now, though there are ways to attach a big DSLR lens to a mirror lens by use of a lens adapter, but that also presents a problem where the lens is much heavier then the camera, a situation I would not be comfortable with.

This is the Sony A5100 16-50mm DSLR Mirrorless Camera, many mirrorless cameras are as small as point and shoot cameras and will fit into your pocket, take very sharp photos but as of today they do not offer the big zoom range found in DSLR cameras.  This camera sells new for about $425 and is a very light camera.

The mirrorless camera above is the Canon M50, many photographers rejected the mirrorless cameras that first came out, in part, because they did not look like DSLR cameras, were too small and too light.  This is Canons attempt to address some of those concerns and as you can see, though smaller then a DSLR and much lighter, it at least looks like a DSLR, and like with the Sony mirrorless camera, this will also produce very sharp photos.  This camera sells for about $500 new.

Another big development is the use of voice command in cameras, mainly Gopro type cameras, though I do believe this may at some point be the future of DSLR's at some point, they work that well.  I have a voice command go pro and absolutely love it, and take videos without ever looking out the view finder, I simply point the go-pro forward at a level angle, say, "go-pro, start recording," and the camera starts recording.  When I want to stop recording, I simply say, "go-pro, stop recording," and it stops recording, and this type of camera is perfect for anyone who is visually impaired.  There are other commands you can give the camera, including telling it to take photos as well.  Many of my go-pro videos are taken in the woods of Acadia National Park, and while the use of a go-pro is pretty much foolproof, no eyesight required, in other words, to use one, I still need a photo-buddy to tap me on the shoulders when a tree branch, rock, roots or other things are in my path as I walk forward, and even with this help I still do my fair share of face plants.  If you do get a Gopro, you should know the one major drawback of such a tiny camera is their mics are very sensitive and most of the time you use one the mic will pick up your breathing.  I over-came this problem by placing my Gopro on the end of a selfie stick and hold the selfi stick out in front of me as a record, this way the camera is far enough away to not pick up my breathing while still being close enough to hear my voice commands.

Above is a GoPro attached to the end of a selfie stick, in the manner of how most people use a selfie stick, with the camera aimed back in your direction.  I place my GoPro on the stick the same way, but with the camera aimed away from me, and aim it forward away from me, because these camera take a wide angle video or photo, you are almost gar rented to get a high quality video and movement is not a concern, as you can walk or even run with the camera on and your videos will still come out great.  If your visually impaired and want great videos each and every time this may very well be a great option.

A complete GoPro 7 black kit can be found for around $350 and may or may not include a selfie stick.

While a Gopro will not give you a big zoom, you don't need it, you simply aim it in the direction of a park, a pier, an outdoor event, and tell it to start recording, the camera view is wide, meaning it would be very hard for you to not get a great video, even if your visually impaired.  Camera life on these tiny camers is short, about one hour and fifteen minutes, but charging time is short, and I always carry backup batteries, but to be truthful, I have only had the battery run out on my once, mainly because there are very few times where you will be recording for an hour or more.  In case your wondering which Gopro I use, I have the Gopro 7 black, I did my research and did not feel some of the features on the newer Gopro 8 would be very useful for someone with my limited eyesight.  

A final note, I strongly suggest you go to Youtube and do your research, even Google has dozens of Camera and Camera lens reviews.  Beware of reviews that compare a !150 lens to a $1,000 lens, as those reviews are useless, everyone already knows which lens will be found to be the better lens, what you want to know is, which lens in this price range is best, which camera in this price range is best, and online reviews can help narrow down your choices.  I selected the Canon Rebel for several reasons, first I had a professional photographer overseas who highly recommended the Canon Rebel to me, he is known for the sharp macro photos he takes of cats and insects.  Secondly, the T6i and T7i models have built in  Automatic lens aberration correction for vignetting, lateral color fringes, distortion and diffraction correction built in, which means your photos will come out that much better.  And thirdly, I just love the quality that goes into a Canon Camera.  

I want to finish with a word or two on photo editing, many professional photographers say they will not allow their photos to be seen until they have been edited, and this was a major issue I en counted, with the ability to only see shadows, and blurry ones at that, how do I make use of a photo editor?  Many have dozens if not hundreds of buttons, some change the IOS, some change the colors, but with my linited eyesight I could not see these changes so did not know if I was making a photo better, or worse.  Someone recommended I check out a program many professionals were moving to, called Luminar, they said I would not have to worry about making any editing choices because Luminar had a AI option, the very top button to be exact, upload a photo, click on AI (artificial intelligence) and your photo is professionally edited with stunning results.  I purchased the program, $69, and loved it because of all the great comments I have received from my photos.  And the photos you load onto the program remain the same size after they are edited, which is very important, because many free online photo editing sites will also automatically edit your photos, but with less stunning results and the edited version of the photo is much smaller then the photo you uploaded.  And the size of a photo is important, if you or a friend tries to enlarge or crop a 6000 by 4000 photo the results will be good, but if your photo is reduced to 800 by 1200 and you attempt to enlarge  or crop that photo, the results will usually be poor with soft or blurry results.  That is why I recommend you purchase a photo editor, one with one button editing available as opposed to using a cheap online editor that ruins your photos at the end of the day.  And if your visual impairment isn't too bad, you may get good use from all those other features such an editor offers.  

So in conclusion, find yourself a camera, a photo-buddy, and get out and begin taking photos, if a legally blind guy with stigma and floaters can do this, so can you.  

The Luminar photo editor offers a one button professional edit option which makes it perfect for anyone who is visually impaired and is an easy program to use.