Has anyone had issues with eyestrain and/or dry eye while doing intensive computer work (post-processing or other work)? I have had issues off and on for years, but it has become even worse lately, so I have finally scheduled a dry test/consult with my optometrist. I have been trying some of his suggestions, such as warm eye compresses, certain types of eye drops, etc. They are not enough. Recently, I find that on many days, my eyes quit after a couple hours and I am not able to accomplish as much as I’d like at work and in my hobbies (e.g, photography!) Reading books and other printed materials does not cause these problems!
I have not bought blue light blocking prescription eyeglasses yet, but I think this will likely be my optomestrist’s next suggestion. (I have yet to delve into the peer-reviewed literature on this topic!) However, poor soul that I am, I am on Windows 11, and just decided to try the blue light attenuation feature. So far go good! I looked at some photos I have been working on lately, and I notice no difference in the color rendition or balance.
For those of you that have tried attenuating the blue light your monitor displays, did you find that it helped with eyestrain and/or dry eye? Did it have a noticeable effect on the color rendition or balance of your photos?
What do you think would be the best method of attenuating blue light–using an OS approach (as I did in Win 11), a monitor-based approach (I am using a 27" BenQ), or just buying blue-light blocking glasses?
Redshift programs exist on every OS, I used gtk-redshift on GNU/Linux on my computers for a long time when I was heavily using computers and it did help with eye strain.
Blocking blue light will most probably affect your color perception thus alter your ability to correctly edit your pictures… I did not try other methods to block blue light (glasses or protective screen) and due to career change I’m not so much using screens tha much so eye strain is not a problem anymore.
That said you can still use a redshift program or other for daily use and de-activate it to perform color critical works.
I also bought an e-reader equipped with e-paper to reduce screen usage to just read long texts, pdf and books. It helped as well.
Frankly, if you can’t notice anything in the display, then it may be because the feature is not doing anything.
There are three main solutions I am aware of:
Glasses that filter part of the spectrum. you may notice a slight yellowish tint, but it is not significant for most people.
Software that attenuates the blue channel. By construction, colors will look warmer. Not ideal for photo editing.
Screens designed with the filters built in. Now you can get brand new ones with this feature around $200–300, depending on size.
I would go for #3, as eyeglasses are usually not cheap either, and frankly you do not need them when you are not looking at a screen. While you are at it, get a screen that is certified to reduce eyestrain (which means less flicker, etc). This is not a luxury any more.
Also make sure you get the right kind of ambient light — I prefer diffuse sideways light from the side, using a heavy but translucent curtain during the summer, and a light one from fall to spring.
Blue light will be part of the problem, but may not be causing all your eyestrain problems. Screen positioning, breaks, proper hydration, excluding or treating medical conditions that interfere with your tear production could be part of the puzzle (if you haven’t got a tear production test yet, get one, it is not that unpleasant, they also have tests for tear composition but your doctor can advise on that).
I would suggest doing so. The picture is not clear, and my feeling is, that the eyestrain is the consequence of working at the computer but not especially the blue light. Also dry eyes become more common with advancing age .
I assume you’re using Xorg? You should make sure that the display profile is still loaded for your monitor when you begin editing. You can query colord or xatom, or run darktable-cmstest to get a report of what is set.
Hi, thanks for the replies. I have the same monitor at work, but Windows 10. Strangely (or maybe not strangely given that Windows 11 sucks), the feature worked on Win 10 at work, but not on Windows 11 at home. At work, I definitely did see a color shift when the effect exceeds 10% or so (slider). At home, for some reason it does not work.
I would certainly not use such a feature while editing or doing anything with photos.
I have several lights/lamps set up at eye level or lower. Overhead lighting, I generally dislike, except for a few tasks. I virtually never turn on the fluorescent lights in my office at work. I have set up my own lamps with LED bulbs, emitting with a much more pleasant glow.
Maybe Redshift works? I read there were also ICC problems, so maybe that’s not a good alternative either. I liked F.Lux since it is customizable enough and supports day/night cycle without permanent location access (I’m looking at you, Windows night light), you can just select closest city.
The thing is, I like to have warmer colors for general use in the evening, it makes the monitor much more pleasant to look at.
Seems like I’ll need to get rid of F.Lux, although I haven’t used my ICC profiles, I switched back, since my primary laptop display is too inaccurate anyways (56% sRGB) and profile makes things look too saturated in supported apps, and I edit mainly on display that is close to sRGB anyways (only display where kept the profile active, but dunno how much did F.Lux mess up).
I still have trouble wrapping my head around calibration and profiles, I’ll message you later.
Yes, that is pretty much the medical consensus AFAIK.
Blue light is considered harmful because it interferes with the circadian rhythm (causes sleep issues). The pathway is not through the cones which see color, but a special photoreceptor cell in the eye that does not participate in vision.
But, according to testing, the result can be replicated by software that just diminishes the blue. So it is a convenience button on the monitor that your OS can also achieve.
I think that for eyestrain, flicker, balance with ambient light, viewing distance, and glare are more significant. But that is just my personal experience.
I got rid of eye issues by keeping a jug of water on my desk. I think my issue was that I was not hydrated enough.
I believe that this is also not entirely understood as well and more research is coming out which finds that the problem isn’t really blue light but any light during the sensitive hours.
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