Sunday, November 16, 2008

With a Little Help from Photoshop

Want to get an idea of what it's like for me to "see" now? I found this picture on the net:

AccordKitNight.jpg (35988 bytes)

...and decided that I'd fiddle around with PhotoShop effects and see if I could come close to creating what this picture would look like if I were in a car getting ready to pass. The result is pretty accurate.

headlights.jpg (62714 bytes)

There is a slight difference. Some headlights are more yellow than others. And the rays coming out from the center would be thinner, more, and closer together. But this comes pretty darn close.

Now you know why I don't drive at night!!

Why I don't drive in the day is a little more difficult to do with PhotoShop because a huge part of it is a difference in the intensity of light and I can't quite get that right using PhotoShop, but I came up with this picture, which I took on the highway when we were driving down to the Bay Area today.

blurno.jpg (29186 bytes)

Now the closest I could come, using PhotoShop to alter this photo and make it loook like what I see when I look out the window is this:

blur.jpg (22571 bytes)

As you can see, the center is darker and more blurred, and the it gets lighter as you move out to the sides (I'm actually kind of proud that I was able to recreate this with PhotoShop!) But add to this the light, which can be overwhelming when the sun is shining and you have some sort of idea why I don't drive in the daytime either!

It's not like this, of course, around the house, or as I sit here at the computer, but the light outside blurs everything and makes it that much worse.

Needless to say, I am looking forward to my surgery in January!

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