“Seeing is the ability to observe what is before the photographer and visualize how it will appear in an image. It is the most fundamental skill because it not only determines which visual elements will appear in an image, but also influences the decision to make the image. Many people believe that seeing is a mysterious gift, the so-called “artist’s eye.” The reality is that almost anyone can learn seeing, particularly when they understand the basic processes by which the brain perceives visual information. For most people, the difficulty in seeing originates from a tendency to rely on analytical processing by the left hemisphere of the brain to interpret visual information. Unlike the right hemisphere, which processes visual information as it appears, the left hemisphere abstracts information and symbolizes it. When processing visual information using the left hemisphere, people register the objects they are looking at but do not really perceive them as they actually appear. For example, they will perceive telephone poles as perfectly vertical even when they are slanted one or two degrees. People are fully capable of seeing objects as they actually appear, but many need to train themselves to use the cognitive functioning of the brain’s right hemisphere more effectively. Compared to the many other skills associated with photography, seeing is relatively easy to improve but, ironically, can be one of the biggest challenges to a photographer. Seeing is easy to improve because it generally only requires the photographer to shift into the cognitive form of visualization that is controlled by the right hemisphere of the brain. The challenge comes from the fact that most people are educated in matters that require left hemisphere skills and have not been taught skills that engage the functions of the right hemisphere. Also, developing the ability to perceive diverse elements such as shapes, emotions, temporal change, and metaphor as a unified whole seems daunting at first but becomes fairly effortless once you achieve a certain proficiency at seeing.” Bert Krages
Posted on: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 14:59:04 +0000