All this talk about low light stages prompted me to actually sit back and think about this... I've spoken to a fair number of other shooters who expressed their opinions, and funny enough, they were all fairly negative... Well, this is what I think, from my point of view.
Your eye can keep only so much "in focus"; when you're focusing on something up close, things in the back will get fuzzy and out of focus. The depth in which things are in focus, around what you're looking at, is called the depth of focus. Everyone's is different, but there are some universal constants: the wider the eye's lens/pupil is open, the shorter that depth is. I.e. in low light situations, the depth of focus shirks drastically (because you eye has to open up a lot). Those who are used to focusing on the front sight and seeing the targets fuzzy will find the targets now virtually shapeless, melting into the background.
This effect is greatly magnified for people with shortsigntness; no, it doesn't have to be extreme, almost-blind vision problem, anyone with any level of glasses will experience an amplification of this problem because the loss of far-distance focusing ability is lost almost immediately, with any level of vision problems - so the background is already out of focus, even without taking any lighting conditions into account.
To the point where I, for example, when shooting something 15m away in very dark settings, by focusing on the sights, cannot see the target. Period. The target is INVISIBLE to me against the black/dark background. How the heck am I supposed to shoot at something I cannot see?
Now, I've shot low light stages, like the one in Montreal, where they provided a flashlight - great, I have no problem with that. If you want to make it so that there's a way for those with glasses/etc to see beyond their abilities, with extra light, great. But putting small partials, surrounded by PTs, at a distance, in darkness, where you can barely see the targets and most certainly cannot call your shots, has nothing to do with shooting ability. What does it test? draw? target transition? shooting on the move? setups and takeoffs? Accuracy? nonsense - it tests how well you can see in darkness, and that is not a skill which you can practice or learn, it's random genetics. If you want to decide a stage on a flip of a coin, it would be no different...
Now, there's an extension of this... Low light is bad enough. When you introduce rapidly changing light situations, from total darkness to flashing/strobing lights, for a sizeable percentage of the people, it makes it impossible to see anything. This has all the problems of the above situation PLUS it forces the eye to be constantly opening/closing, and depending on how quickly or well that happens, you can be totally blind! in low light, chances are you can at least see your sights! With those strobing or flashing lights, I couldn't even keep the front sight in focus!
I have a feeling that these stages were designed by people who simply don't have those problems, so to them they were just neat additions to a normal stage of fire. Sort of like color based stuff - pick a card, and based on the color under it, you shoot a different set of targets. That's great, except for people who are, even slightly, color blind! But for a person with a normal color vision, they wouldn't even think about this. And then, when pointed out, the natural reaction is not to say "ohh, ok, right, I didn't think about it, let's change it," it's to get defensive, and attack the person making the comment ("well, too bad, you can take 20% off and shoot without it, do you expect stages designed to your ability?").
You know what, though? That's not a bad idea... All those low light/strobing/etc stages, they aren't speed shoots, the light conditions require a slow down. Next time I see one I will totally take the 20% penalty, and shoot with the lights on. And I'll encourage anyone with glasses or any vision problems to do the same, and quite legitimately so. So, we're talking about a stage where what? 15-20% of the shooters will be taking the penalty because their eyes aren't compatible with the stage design... That should be a good hint that your stage design might leave something to be desired, even if you think it's cool and neat. This is no different than having a wall which you cannot shoot over if you're under 5'8"; sure, most shooters will be fine, but what are you going to do with the rest? Tell them "take 20% off"? People cannot control their eye sight anymore than they can control their height, and it's just as inappropriate to ignore those differences, in stage design.
You want to have low light? Fine, shut off all the lights, give people plenty of time to adjust to darkness, and give them a flashlight.
You want strobing and/or flashing lights on your stage? Get ready for lots of people taking 20% off, totally screwing up the stage results. I will have no problem with taking my 20%, and will feel it is a perfectly legitimate and perfectly justifiable move: if my I cannot SEE the targets because the lighting conditions throw my eyes into a tailspin, how can I shoot at them!??!? And don't give me the "ohhh, it's the same for everyone" crap. Sure, it's the same for everyone, just like that 5'8" wall is the same for everyone. That ignores the fact that everyone is not the same, in ways which matter, for the purposes of that stage. Just because you can't see the differences in people's eyes' abilities (whereas you can see height differences) that doesn't mean those differences aren't there, and aren't just as significant.
Your eye can keep only so much "in focus"; when you're focusing on something up close, things in the back will get fuzzy and out of focus. The depth in which things are in focus, around what you're looking at, is called the depth of focus. Everyone's is different, but there are some universal constants: the wider the eye's lens/pupil is open, the shorter that depth is. I.e. in low light situations, the depth of focus shirks drastically (because you eye has to open up a lot). Those who are used to focusing on the front sight and seeing the targets fuzzy will find the targets now virtually shapeless, melting into the background.
This effect is greatly magnified for people with shortsigntness; no, it doesn't have to be extreme, almost-blind vision problem, anyone with any level of glasses will experience an amplification of this problem because the loss of far-distance focusing ability is lost almost immediately, with any level of vision problems - so the background is already out of focus, even without taking any lighting conditions into account.
To the point where I, for example, when shooting something 15m away in very dark settings, by focusing on the sights, cannot see the target. Period. The target is INVISIBLE to me against the black/dark background. How the heck am I supposed to shoot at something I cannot see?
Now, I've shot low light stages, like the one in Montreal, where they provided a flashlight - great, I have no problem with that. If you want to make it so that there's a way for those with glasses/etc to see beyond their abilities, with extra light, great. But putting small partials, surrounded by PTs, at a distance, in darkness, where you can barely see the targets and most certainly cannot call your shots, has nothing to do with shooting ability. What does it test? draw? target transition? shooting on the move? setups and takeoffs? Accuracy? nonsense - it tests how well you can see in darkness, and that is not a skill which you can practice or learn, it's random genetics. If you want to decide a stage on a flip of a coin, it would be no different...
Now, there's an extension of this... Low light is bad enough. When you introduce rapidly changing light situations, from total darkness to flashing/strobing lights, for a sizeable percentage of the people, it makes it impossible to see anything. This has all the problems of the above situation PLUS it forces the eye to be constantly opening/closing, and depending on how quickly or well that happens, you can be totally blind! in low light, chances are you can at least see your sights! With those strobing or flashing lights, I couldn't even keep the front sight in focus!
I have a feeling that these stages were designed by people who simply don't have those problems, so to them they were just neat additions to a normal stage of fire. Sort of like color based stuff - pick a card, and based on the color under it, you shoot a different set of targets. That's great, except for people who are, even slightly, color blind! But for a person with a normal color vision, they wouldn't even think about this. And then, when pointed out, the natural reaction is not to say "ohh, ok, right, I didn't think about it, let's change it," it's to get defensive, and attack the person making the comment ("well, too bad, you can take 20% off and shoot without it, do you expect stages designed to your ability?").
You know what, though? That's not a bad idea... All those low light/strobing/etc stages, they aren't speed shoots, the light conditions require a slow down. Next time I see one I will totally take the 20% penalty, and shoot with the lights on. And I'll encourage anyone with glasses or any vision problems to do the same, and quite legitimately so. So, we're talking about a stage where what? 15-20% of the shooters will be taking the penalty because their eyes aren't compatible with the stage design... That should be a good hint that your stage design might leave something to be desired, even if you think it's cool and neat. This is no different than having a wall which you cannot shoot over if you're under 5'8"; sure, most shooters will be fine, but what are you going to do with the rest? Tell them "take 20% off"? People cannot control their eye sight anymore than they can control their height, and it's just as inappropriate to ignore those differences, in stage design.
You want to have low light? Fine, shut off all the lights, give people plenty of time to adjust to darkness, and give them a flashlight.
You want strobing and/or flashing lights on your stage? Get ready for lots of people taking 20% off, totally screwing up the stage results. I will have no problem with taking my 20%, and will feel it is a perfectly legitimate and perfectly justifiable move: if my I cannot SEE the targets because the lighting conditions throw my eyes into a tailspin, how can I shoot at them!??!? And don't give me the "ohhh, it's the same for everyone" crap. Sure, it's the same for everyone, just like that 5'8" wall is the same for everyone. That ignores the fact that everyone is not the same, in ways which matter, for the purposes of that stage. Just because you can't see the differences in people's eyes' abilities (whereas you can see height differences) that doesn't mean those differences aren't there, and aren't just as significant.
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