BACKGROUND: Patients use a wide variety of terms to describe the characteristics of their vision. These descriptions encompass the effects of their eyes' monochromatic aberrations. METHODS: To illustrate the effect of monochromatic aberrations on the quality of the retinal image, we mathematically reconstructed the image falling on the retina. This has been achieved by combining the properties of various scenes with the optical characteristics of the eye. RESULTS: The effects of some common monochromatic aberrations are illustrated. We also show examples of the retinal image characteristics for two eyes, one with a decentred corneal apex and a second with a decentred refractive surgery ablation. CONCLUSIONS: The image reconstruction technique provides a powerful tool for investigating the quality of the retinal image. It provides the capacity for clinicians to better understand a patient's visual performance. The image reconstruction technique can also broaden our knowledge of the effects of various forms of aberrations on retinal image quality for complex real-world scenes.