One of the photography exercises suggested by a very talented and accomplished photographer, Tom Magno, ...was to face the camera, on a tripod, toward the east or perhaps the north at about 90 minutes before sunset.
Works at the other end of the day as well. Frankly, when in a 'clicking mood,' I wish all days consisted of nothing but 60-90 min. sunrises followed by 60-90min. sunsets, best times of the day for shooting as far as I'm concerned.
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WYSIWYG - At least that's my goal.
When I started photography, a mentor recommended shooting a still life or a scene that was repeatable day after day. For example, an interior room with no windows so the light is the same day after day. Once you have made a print, go compare the print to the scene. This exercise helped me become more aware of minor differences of light on a subject which the brain evens out, but which film does not.
I'm not sure this fits under "seeing" as in recognizing things to photograph, or how to compose an image, but light is a subject in all photographs.
In 1984 Kodak published “The Art of Seeing, the Kodak Workshop Series”,
always available on eBay.
The chapter headings read:
Preconceptions
Awareness
The Glory of Light and Shadow
Elements of the Scene
Looking
Treating the Subject
(And then of course the commercial) Camera, Lenses, Film
I remember an instructor once suggested we look at our photos upside down...and sideways...both sides. It forces you to abandon what your brain knows to be true and really look critically at your own work. It also made using a LF camera much easier.
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Save the Earth. It's the only planet with chocolate.
A friend of mine "bullied" his way into being tutored by one of the best portrait photographers on the country.
His first "assignment" was that he could go to any art gallery he wanted, and look at the paintings. He was explicitly forbidden to look at photographs.
My personal take on this is that the problem is not in seeing as such, but in seeing what is really there, instead of what you know is there. We all carry a pre-conceived idea of what the world is like, and getting rid of our preconceptions is the difficult part. My way of doing this is to attempt to capture the light, and not really pay any attention to what is illuminated by that light. If I ever feel I've mastered this, I'll start photographing objects.
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-- Ole Tjugen, Luddite Elitist Norway
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Minor White published a little paperback manual on the Zone System (I think that was the title;The Zone System Manual). The main theme was an exercise in "previsualization", as he called it (he invented the word). The instruction was about how to look at the world around you and previsualize a monochrome image by mentally seeing the tones in the finished print while looking the colored scene or subject. AA did something similar.
I also find that the upside-down image on the ground glass helps to balance a composition.
__________________ "Pictures are not incidental frills to a text; they are essences of our distinctive way of knowing." S. J. Gould
I think we need to put Bethe on the therapist's couch and find out what he feels he isn't seeing
For starters, and at least in my case, I can report that a healthy diversity of gear is the key. I get in moods for which only RFs work for me, and then I spend some time in LF and then speedy 35mm SLR, and so on. In my own experience, nothing stirs the pot for me as much as taking up a different camera system, different lens, different film.... anything that forces me to think different thoughts along the way.
I heard about a fellow who at first came across as a complete nutjob; he makes cameras that have all kinds of weird items attached. I honestly thought he was completey insane when I first read about it, see for yourself.... (warning, some of it is not for the faint of heart!)
But after my initial recoil, I think I started to understand what he is attempting to do... he is attempting to make cameras that will put him in a totally different frame of mind while shooting with them. In other words use the gear to affect how the shot is taken. That is an important idea, I think... and one that can be lost in today's cookie-cutter DSLR-dominated photography.
My personal take on this is that the problem is not in seeing as such, but in seeing what is really there, instead of what you know is there. We all carry a pre-conceived idea of what the world is like, and getting rid of our preconceptions is the difficult part.
In my class of 12 year old boys, I practice drawing things quickly - 10 second sketches, that sort of thing. In the middle of a series of these I will place a tall stool on a table, with the seat way above their eye level. After the drawing is done, I ask how many drew the seat part of the stool - most do. Why? Because they "know the seat is there, or else it wouldn't be a stool." They aren't looking at the real stool at all, but at the stool image they have in their heads. Getting past the slide show in our heads that "knows" what things look like is the hardest part of learning to draw -- which, by the way, is the best way to learn to see there is. Until the last century (long after the advent of photography,) scientists were trained as artists - so that they could sharpen their observational skills and record what they saw.
Linear Mode
