Photography: Visual Perception

If you are really going to progress as any kind of photographer, in addition to technical expertise you need a strong visual sense (something you develop as an individual through practice and knowledge). This should go beyond compositional rules and picture structuring to include some understanding of why people see and react to photographs in different ways.

The latter can be a lifetime’s study, because so many changing influences are at work. Some aspects of reading meaning from photographs are blindingly obvious… Others much more subtle. However, realizing how people tend to react to pictures helps you to predict the influences of your own work – and then to plan and shoot with this in mind.

The actual physical act of seeing first involves the eye forming a primary image on the retina. Second, it concerns your brain’s perception and interpretation of this image. You might view exactly the same scene as the next person but differ greatly in what you make of what you see or how you react to it or feel it. In the same way, two people may look at the same photographic print but read its contents quite differently. The point is that none of us works entirely in a programmed machine, and unless you are uncompromisingly working to please yourself, you must think to whom your photography is directed and how it is likely to be perceived. This will help to clarify your choises in approaching your subject and presenting it.

~ Photo by gadl

Sometimes your visual communication must be simple, direct and clear – as in most product advertising. This may be aimed at known groups of receivers identified because they are readers of a particular magazine, drivers past billboards, or people buying at store counters. Other photographs may be more successful and mind-provoking when they suggest rather than state things. The more obscure, subtle, and symbolic your image is, the more likely it is to be interpreted in different ways – but may be this is your intention!

~ Photo by Sepulture {mood disorder}

Much also depends on the way your pictures are physically presented; how they relate to any adjacent pictures, whether they appear on pages you turn or are isolated in frames hung on a wall. Some photographers add slogans, quotations or factual or literary captions when presenting their work to clarify it, and give an extra edge by posing questions and wonders, or even purposely to confuse the pictures. They often rate word and image as equally important. And it is an approach which has worked well in the past.

~ Photo by h.koppdelaney