When it comes to trying new sunglass lenses, there's a clear right way and a wrong way to go about it. Understanding the correct approach can make all the difference in leveraging the full potential of your eyewear and how it can enhance your viewing experience.
In This Article
Introduction
I've heard so many times "I don't like brown lenses" "Rose lenses make the world look funny" "I only like grey lenses" etc.
And it's true if you only try them on your eyes for 30-90 seconds. It often does look bad when you have just put them.
But after that, it's not true at all. Your eyes just need a few moments to adjust.
And they won't if you take them off right away.
Keep the lenses on for two minutes.
Rose lenses are a good example of this. When you first put them on they look like this:
Obviously, this is awful and nobody would wear this lens. But if you just wait around two minutes your brain adjusts and the view looks more like this (Oakley Prizm Road):
Or this, in the case of brown lenses:
Why does it take 2 minutes to adjust?
Two reasons.
Our eyes need to adjust to the amount of light being decreased.
Our brains need to make sense of the colors being altered.
Both of these problems are solved by just keeping the lenses on for around 2 minutes. That is all it takes for our eyes and brains to adjust for us to know whether we truly enjoy a lens or not.
In addition, if you are trying on multiple lenses, you should take off the first pair and look around without any sunglasses on for around a minute before trying on the next pair. Your brain needs a minute to get back to baseline, much the same way people smell coffee beans in between smelling fragrances to prevent their noses going smell-blind.
Let's go into more detail to understand why our eyes and brains need 2 minutes.
Adjusting to Changing Brightness
Our eyes possess remarkable adaptability when it comes to perceiving different levels of light.
If you've ever used a conventional point-and-shoot camera, you might be acquainted with the concept of "aperture." This adjustable opening in the lens enables light to enter, facilitating image focus. Interestingly, the human eye functions in a remarkably similar manner.
While the iris is recognized for determining eye color, it's also composed of small muscles that collaborate with the pupils. Together, they regulate the amount of light entering the eye. The pupil's behavior closely resembles that of a camera's adjustable aperture.
In low-light conditions, these muscles relax, causing the pupil to dilate and admit more light. Conversely, in bright environments, these muscles contract, causing the pupil to constrict and reduce the amount of light required for focus.
Once light enters the eye through the circular pupil, it traverses the retina and interacts with light-sensing cells positioned at the rear of the eye known as photoreceptors. These photoreceptors can be categorized into two groups based on their shape and function:
Rods: These are responsible for nighttime vision, offering lower resolution but greater abundance.
Cones: They contribute to daytime vision, are responsible for color perception, and are present in smaller numbers.
The combined functions of these two types of cell receptors enable our eyes to adapt to varying lighting conditions, with the retina adjusting the workload between rods and cones based on the amount of light allowed by the pupils.
Adapting to Darkness
If you've ever wondered how you can see in a dark room with minimal lighting, you can attribute it to your rod photoreceptors. When the lights are extinguished, you may notice a delay in your vision adjustment. This is because these rod receptors become "bleached out" due to the previous light source, and it takes time for them to regenerate their rhodopsin pigments.
This process, termed "dark adaptation," occurs more slowly compared to its counterpart, "light adaptation," because rod receptors are more sensitive and significantly more numerous than cone cells. During the rhodopsin restoration phase, which can sometimes extend for up to an hour, our pupils dilate to their maximum extent to admit any available light sources, enhancing our vision in darkness.
Adapting to Bright Light
Have you ever stepped out of a dark movie theater into the bright afternoon sun after watching a film? If so, you're likely familiar with the temporary glare that prompts you to blink as your eyes adjust to the intense brightness.
This sudden influx of light triggers responses in our pupils and photoreceptors, initiating the process of light adaptation. Similar to dark adaptation, this automatic adjustment occurs in the retina, involving both rod and cone receptors. However, cone receptors, being more agile and less numerous than rods, respond more rapidly to immediate changes in lighting. Cone cells also regenerate about five times faster than rods, enabling your vision to return to normal more swiftly.
Adjusting to Color Change and White Balance
In photography, one of the most important concepts is white balance. While people don't have the same mechanism to adjust white balance as cameras, we do adjust in a similar way.
What is white balance?
Some light is warm in color. As an example, think of candlelight and the warm light glow it emits. Conversely, overcast skies are cool and look bluer.
Usually, colors in your photos will look pretty close to the way they look in real life. However, your camera is easily confused and can sometimes make the colors too warm or too cool.
The most obvious place to spot this problem is the parts of your scene that are, or should be, white. When you take a photo by candlelight, sometimes the whites will look kind of yellow or orange.
Applying a correction so that pictures make these colors look normal is what white balance is all about.
Do we have white balance adjustment in our eyes and brains?
The way our eyes see things is pretty complicated. It involves special cells in our eyes and a lot of work in our brains. Our eyes and brains can interpret color in a far more advanced way than cameras do.
Our visual system has mechanisms to maintain color constancy, which is the ability of our visual system to maintain a consistent perception of color despite changes in lighting conditions. We can do this in a relative, subjective, and ongoing manner, for each detail in our visual scene.
The human vision system is complex, involving both photo-receptors and neurons in the eye, along with intricate processing in the brain. The main receptor of information from the retina is the lateral geniculate nucleus, located in the thalamus near the center of the brain. This nucleus routes information to the primary visual cortex and other visual areas. The primary visual cortex processes this information into a three-dimensional model of the world. For this question, areas V2 and V4 are important.
Cells in V2 process orientation, spatial frequency, color, depth perception, and motion. Together with the primary visual cortex (V1), V2 registers wavelength, hue, and luminance. At this level, the brain likely performs a "white balance adjustment" similar to a camera, normalizing each channel, though it is more complex and dynamic.
It's V4 that does the real trick. V4 handles color consistency based on color memory. We remember how objects are supposed to look and adjust subconsciously so they appear correct. For instance, we know roses are red, snow is white, and certain fruits have specific colors. Research supports this, showing that humans have "memory colors," for example, for skin tones, which is why accurate white balance is crucial in portraits.
The fovea, the part of the retina creating the sharpest image and most sensitive to color, covers only one or two percent of the retina. Unlike a camera, which captures a full-color image at once, our eyes and brain build and update the image over time, with the fovea being crucial for high visual acuity tasks like reading and recognizing faces.
How Trying on Sunglass Lenses is Affected
Adjusting to Light and Color
As we've discussed, your eyes need time to adjust to changes in light and color. When you put on a new pair of sunglasses, your pupils and photoreceptors undergo a quick adaptation process to accommodate the altered light conditions. We need to give our eyes time for this to happen.
More importantly, our brain needs a moment to adjust to any color changes brought about by the lenses. Adding a tinted sunglass with subtle color-enhancing light filtering technology can be a sharp change for our vision. Our eyes and brains may take minutes to process the color differences to remake our vision in a way our brains feel comfortable with.
Choosing the Right Conditions
To accurately assess the effectiveness of sunglass lenses, it's essential to try them in appropriate conditions. Testing sunglasses indoors under artificial lighting won't provide a true representation of their performance in natural light.
Outdoor conditions, such as the time of day and weather, also play a significant role. Bright, sunny days will highlight how well lenses reduce glare and enhance contrast, while overcast or varying light conditions can show how they handle changing brightness levels.
It is highly recommended to take the sunglasses you are trying on outside and test them where they are meant to be used.
Consider Your Activities
Different activities demand different types of lenses. If you're an avid cyclist or runner, lenses that enhance contrast and improve clarity, like rose or amber tints, may be more suitable. The nicest looking lens in general may not be the best lens for your particular activity.
Conclusion
Choosing the right sunglasses involves more than just picking a pair that looks good. Understanding how your eyes and brain adapt to changes in light and color is crucial in finding lenses that enhance your viewing experience.
Give your eyes the time they need to adjust—about two minutes—when trying new lenses. Ensure you test them under the right conditions to see how they perform in real-world scenarios. By doing so, you'll be able to make an informed decision and select the best sunglasses for your needs.
I always tell people that sunglasses with premium lenses sell themselves. Try them on in the right way and you'll see why.
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