The shit blog of Paul Chris Jones

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I bought a light box from Amazon so I could take professional photos. But after just one session, I noticed that my eyes hurt, the same way they hurt if you stare into the sun. My eyes didn't hurt a lot, but it was enough to make me think about how the light box was affecting my eyes.

You see, what I didn't know when I bought the light box was that light boxes can hurt your eyes. The light from a light box is surprisingly bright, strong enough to make your eyes hurt after just a few minutes of use.

Thankfully I was able to find a few solutions to the problem that allowed me to keep using light box without jeopardizing my eyesight.

These solutions are:

1. Wear sunglasses
2. Use the dimmest setting
3. Use the light box outside

Method 1. Wear sunglasses

Sunglasses are designed to protect your eyes from the Sun, but why shouldn't they be able to protect your eyes from a light box as well?

Using this logic, I tried wearing a pair of sunglasses the next time I used the light box. And what do you know – my eyes hurt a lot less afterwards.

Remember though that not all sunglasses offer protection. Some cheap sunglasses are nothing but fashion accessories. Do not use these – or at least, not to protect your eyes anyway.

Look for a label that says “100% protection against both UVA and UVB” or “100% protection against UV 400”. Don't assume that a cheap pair of sunglasses will protect your eyes because they probably won't.

(If you are looking for uv400 sunglasses, then here is a pair on Amazon.)

Here’s a photo of me wearing my two-year-old son's sunglasses because they were the only UV protection sunglasses I could find.

Method 2. Use the light box on the dimmest setting

My lightbox allows you to turn the strength of the light up or down. The light ranges from a dim light to a so-bright-it-will-burn-your-eyeballs-out light.

Obviously if you want to protect your eyes then you shouldn't use the highest setting. It makes sense to use the lowest setting instead.

I’ve found that using the lowest dimmest setting has the same photographic results as the brightest setting. Compare these two photos for example. The one on the left is taken with the dimmest light possible and the one on the right is taken with the brightest light possible. To me, they look pretty much the same.

Well, admittedly, the background looks slightly bluer in the photo on the right, but that's about it.

So you might as well stick to the dimmest setting and forget all about the brighter settings. You'll get the same photographic results and your eyes weren't hurt at the end of it.

Method 3. Use the light box outside

it makes sense to use lightbox outside rather than inside because when you're outside, your eyes have already adjusted to the bright sunlight. The sun will have already made your pupils constrict, thereby protecting your eyes from the bright light coming from the light box.

Conversely, when you use a lightbox indoors, your pupils will be relatively dilated because they will have adjusted to the relative darkness of the room. This means the light box will hurt your eyes more.

Conclusion

This post has described three ways of protecting your eyes from a light box: wear sunglasses, use the light box on the dimmest setting, and used light box outside. Ideally, you can do all three methods at the same time to be completely sure that your eyes are safe.

If you have any tips for preventing light boxes from damaging your eyes, then please share them in the comments below.