General light sensitivity may increase in patients with macular degeneration. Some patients are unable to tolerate bright lights in their home. Due to this photophobia, patients usually begin wearing sunglasses to help cope with the bright lights. When scars form in the retina they serve as reflectors to scatter light back off the retina causing further intolerance to bright lights. The majority of the rod cells are located in the peripheral retina and are thus unaffected by macular degeneration.
Rod cells function in lower levels of light allowing the patient to have better vision.
The macula has the highest concentration of cones, the cells that provide color vision. Thus with the degeneration of the macula, it results in damage to the cone color cells. Patients still see colors but color perception may become more and more impaired in advanced macular degeneration. The peripheral retina is very sensitive to small objects and relative motion. With the central retina damaged, the patient may not be able to see faces straight ahead while seeing stars, lint on a shoulder or speck of paper on the floor, because they are picked up in the peripheral retina or side vision.