Photography and epilepsy...

[Soocom1]

So a friend of mine wants me to take photos of her and her BF under the tree they first kissed.
Setting up for a daytime shoot with an off camera flash/strobe, but was warned that she has Hemiplegic Migraines with epileptic tendencies.

ergo: Bright lights pushes her to a seizure.

Now this is a simple matter of no flash and adjusting stops, and WB.
But it brings to my attention that any photographer should warn ahead of time that if a customer has such tendencies, that both parties should be made aware.

Thoughts?

 

[snowbear]

Not a pro, but I thinks it's something to consider; better than finding out the hard way. Seizures are probably not the photographer's fault, but you'd have to deal with it.

MLW has an issue with strobes causing migraines. If we are diving at night and have a tow truck ahead of us, we have to back off.

 

[dennybeall]

My experience with this problem is that a single flash does not trigger the problem, especially if it's a reduced power fill flash.
The seizures are usually triggered with multiple rapid flashes

 

[tirediron]

In my view, this is something that the person with the condition should warn the photographer of. I am certainly not going to ask every client if they have an issue with strobes. I don't think it's unreasonable to assume a photographer is going to use strobed light, and if you know you have such a condition, the responsibility is on you to share that information.

 

[Overread]

To be fair normally the photographer turning up and setting up lights is a good hint that lights would be used. Things to watch out for might be if they are fine iwth a single bolt of light; but if you've got an on camera flash and it pulses for AF assist or such.

That said reflectors, excluders and such can easily let you control and manipulate the light without flash and modern editing gives you a good degree of flexibility so long as you get solid initial shots. Heck you can even shoot background and subjects on their own and then merge them.

 

[smoke665]

Having been on the scene of many seizure calls over the years, I can tell you it's not something the average person will want to deal with. Since you've been warned I think you're wise to leave out the flash completely.

As to the photographer's obligation to ask the client if a flash will cause them problems, like others have said, this is something the client should reveal rather then the photographer having to ask.

 

[Derrel]

I think that any client who has this form of epilepsy should disclose it to the photographer well in advance of the session.

Around 1984 I was working as a projectionist in the drive-in theater in my hometown. I had the door open to the projection booth since it was summer and pretty hot inside. A young man ,probably 16 to 20 years of age, Walked into the projection booth and took a look at one of the projectors that was running. Since the shutter is basically a fan and we show each of 24 frames per second twice, He looked at a brilliant light that was cycling at around 48 Times per second. All of a sudden he collapsed to the floor. I realize that he was probably suffering from a condition called TV epilepsy, in which strobiscopic light flashes cause seizures . He was really embarrassed, and as soon as he came to, he left hurriedly.

There have been several movies that have warnings about this at the very start, that there will be bright strobe flashes. I do not know if bright single flashes will cause an issue, but stroboscopic or rapidly firing lights might be an issue. I would have a discussion with this person before agreeing to photograph them.