Previsualization

DonW · Apr 22, 2022

Much has been said about Minor White's concepts around previsualization. It just could be some people according to this study just can't do it, period. Some are at the other end of the spectrum. Interesting reading anyway. What do you think about your ability to "previsualize"? Maybe get someone to watch your eyes when looking at various photographs.

How Pupil Size Can Reveal What Is—Or Isn’t—Happening in Your Mind

A new study looked to the eyes for a potential test for aphantasia, or the inability to conjure up imagery in the mind.

www.vice.com

Don

Sirius Glass · Apr 22, 2022

I can do it. It can be useful once one learns. For example the choice of filter for bringing out the clouds. Should I use IR film instead? Would it be better in color. Just do not get over obsessive.

MattKing · Apr 22, 2022

FWIW, AA used visualization.
Minor White was the the one who used previsualization.
From the discussions over the years here, it is clear to me that among photographers, there is a wide range in the amount of (pre)visualization that actually occurs.

jtk · Apr 22, 2022

Both Minor and Ansel previsualized the work sudents would do in their new future. Neither imagined how wonderfully photos and (especially) prints would become shortly after they passed. Photography has become something very new in some respects but it continues to deal with instants on one hand and with projects on the other. I don't think many of todays photo artists are mired in the technology Ansel and Minor knew anything about....the new things are wonderful...

Alan Edward Klein · Apr 22, 2022

Sirius Glass said:
I can do it. It can be useful once one learns. For example the choice of filter for bringing out the clouds. Should I use IR film instead? Would it be better in color. Just do not get over obsessive.

I started using my micro 4/3 digital camera set on BW to previsualize. It also has "filters" selection (red, orange, etc) to give you an idea of the effect. Another advantage is it allows me to select the right lens and the location to put the tripod before taking my film gear out of the car.

Sirius Glass · Apr 22, 2022

Alan Edward Klein said:
I started using my micro 4/3 digital camera set on BW to previsualize. It also has "filters" selection (red, orange, etc) to give you an idea of the effect. Another advantage is it allows me to select the right lens and the location to put the tripod before taking my film gear out of the car.

Or learn how to choose the filter and carry on less camera which only adds weight to haul around. It is not hard:

Yellow brings out clouds, slightly darkens sky
Orange brings out clouds better, darkens sky
Red brings out clouds and blackens sky
Green lightens leaves and hides zits
Skylight 1A cuts UV eliminating haze and slightly warms
UV or Hazw cuts UV eliminating haze
ND cuts the light and lengths the exposure

Ditch the 4/3 camera and replace it with a 3"x5" card with notes. How hard can that be?

awty · Apr 22, 2022

I can imagine how to make my pictures turn out the way I want with out every reading a photography book and using a fancy made up term.

Bill Burk · Apr 23, 2022

Aphantasia is rare, but I know two people with it. I have sort of the opposite. I imagine what’s going on in other people’s minds.

gone · Apr 23, 2022

It's easier if you pre-visualize the developing, printing and gallery sales. That saves a lot of time that can be devoted to previsualizing the Freestyle orders.

We don't have to actually do any of this stuff, do we? That would be a total bummer, I better pre-visualize White's views in that book.

jnamia · Apr 23, 2022

Bill Burk said:
Aphantasia is rare, but I know two people with it. I have sort of the opposite. I imagine what’s going on in other people’s minds.

But, do you know where they ate their breakfast?

Alan Edward Klein · Apr 23, 2022

Sirius Glass said:
Or learn how to choose the filter and carry on less camera which only adds weight to haul around. It is not hard:

Yellow brings out clouds, slightly darkens sky

Orange brings out clouds better, darkens sky

Red brings out clouds and blackens sky

Green lightens leaves and hides zits

Skylight 1A cuts UV eliminating haze and slightly warms

UV or Hazw cuts UV eliminating haze

ND cuts the light and lengths the exposure

Ditch the 4/3 camera and replace it with a 3"x5" card with notes. How hard can that be?

Besides helping select the spot and composition acting like a director's viewfinder, I'm using the micro 4/3 to do metering and note taking as well. Notes can be transcribed when I get home. It also allows me to dictate comments regarding settings and provide a record digitally in video or stills that can be compared to the actual settings used on the film camera. This is teaching me how to use it better as a light meter. It's a work in progress.

Bill Burk · Apr 23, 2022

jnamia said:
But, do you know where they ate their breakfast?

Today after climbing back up the cliffs from the beach cleanup, a cub scout saw the donuts on the tailgate and said he was “so hungry”. I imagined at that moment that he hadn’t had breakfast yet.

250swb · Apr 30, 2022

It was White who pre-visualised the photograph he wanted to make, and Adams visualised the photograph he wanted to make, essentially the same thing but I don't think in any of his Darkroom books Adams mentions 'pre-visualisation'. And there is a key word I used in that sentence that forms the backbone of pre-visualisation, and it is 'make'. This was back when landscape photography gained acceptance in the art world, and artists make things, it is an intellectual process to have a plan in your head of what the final photograph will look like and this to a great extent dictates technique, so equipment, exposure, development etc.

Of course White took pre-visualisation in the spiritual direction of finding inner meaning in what he saw, Adams was a technician and environmentalist who wanted to show the Sierras in their best light. Since then many people have jumped on one bandwagon or another, but it doesn't have to be limited to large format photography or to Zen, you could argue a wedding photographer pre-visualises his or her images because they know what they need in advance. Really it's a way to discipline yourself to find the photographs you want to make and not wander aimlessly like a cloud. So don't 'take', don't 'shoot', don't 'grab', but instead 'make' something you want to make and before long you have a style, which is of course where we started, when photography becomes art, but this time in the individual sense.

faberryman · Apr 30, 2022

Previsualization is just a fancy term for thinking. Everybody should be thinking about their photographs before pressing the shutter release.

BrianShaw · Apr 30, 2022

So White imagined images before Adams?

Vaughn · Apr 30, 2022

Just taught a workshop in Yosemite, which included going out with LF cameras to create negatives for use in the workshop. Several people had those fancy apps on their phone for determining focal length use, etc.

It is nice having the experience not to need such crutches. Ultimately, crutches slow one down until one finally builds up the experience, knowledge and confidence to be able to toss them away.

Sirius Glass · Apr 30, 2022

faberryman said:
Previsualization is just a fancy term for thinking. Everybody should be thinking about their photographs before pressing the shutter release.

It is much easier to improve a composition, location or exposure before pressing the shutter release,

Chan Tran · Apr 30, 2022

If you can't previsualize you use a digital mirrorless camera.

Sirius Glass · Apr 30, 2022

Chan Tran said:
If you can't previsualize you use a digital mirrorless camera.

I thought that is why people changed from rangefinder cameras to slrs.

Chan Tran · Apr 30, 2022

Sirius Glass said:
I thought that is why people changed from rangefinder cameras to slrs.

Not so. Minor White and Ansel Adams both used view camera then the previsualization is only visualizing the image upside down?

Sirius Glass · Apr 30, 2022

Chan Tran said:
Not so. Minor White and Ansel Adams both used view camera then the previsualization is only visualizing the image upside down?

Some people cannot handle upside down they keep turning cameras over or remove and remount the lens.

Bill Burk · Apr 30, 2022

Ok now I have to develop the film to get a negative to print to illustrate the concept of previsualization.

Yesterday I was chatting with a co-worker about backyard fire pits and remembered a photograph I’d seen of a campfire circle built in the desert setting of red rocks. I would like to build such a ring with places for everyone to sit in a circle with a rock wall protecting them from wind. Too bad the desert is so far away.

Then I realized that I could just go to where the creek behind my house meets the ocean, where locals had arranged river rocks into circles. There I could take as many pictures of inviting fire pits as I wanted.

Simple as that, I pre-visualized a print that I am going to make, maybe next week.

Now the ultimate mystique, will be when you tell me what the print I haven’t made yet reminds you of.

Alan Edward Klein · Apr 30, 2022

Bill Burk said:
Ok now I have to develop the film to get a negative to print to illustrate the concept of previsualization.

Yesterday I was chatting with a co-worker about backyard fire pits and remembered a photograph I’d seen of a campfire circle built in the desert setting of red rocks. I would like to build such a ring with places for everyone to sit in a circle with a rock wall protecting them from wind. Too bad the desert is so far away.

Then I realized that I could just go to where the creek behind my house meets the ocean, where locals had arranged river rocks into circles. There I could take as many pictures of inviting fire pits as I wanted.

Simple as that, I pre-visualized a print that I am going to make, maybe next week.

Now the ultimate mystique, will be when you tell me what the print I haven’t made yet reminds you of.

Borrow mine.

Bill Burk · Apr 30, 2022

Nice Alan!

jtk · May 20, 2022

250swb said:
It was White who pre-visualised the photograph he wanted to make, and Adams visualised the photograph he wanted to make, essentially the same thing but I don't think in any of his Darkroom books Adams mentions 'pre-visualisation'. And there is a key word I used in that sentence that forms the backbone of pre-visualisation, and it is 'make'. This was back when landscape photography gained acceptance in the art world, and artists make things, it is an intellectual process to have a plan in your head of what the final photograph will look like and this to a great extent dictates technique, so equipment, exposure, development etc.

Of course White took pre-visualisation in the spiritual direction of finding inner meaning in what he saw, Adams was a technician and environmentalist who wanted to show the Sierras in their best light. Since then many people have jumped on one bandwagon or another, but it doesn't have to be limited to large format photography or to Zen, you could argue a wedding photographer pre-visualises his or her images because they know what they need in advance. Really it's a way to discipline yourself to find the photographs you want to make and not wander aimlessly like a cloud. So don't 'take', don't 'shoot', don't 'grab', but instead 'make' something you want to make and before long you have a style, which is of course where we started, when photography becomes art, but this time in the individual sense.

Yes on both counts.

I was starting to get deepish into previsualization, thanks to Minor White's teaching (which I experienced indirectly). Then I discovered Kodachrome II and my then brand new Nikon Ftn...which I had started to use as a light meter for my Agfa/Ansco 8X10. Those slides were amazing. I could no longer dedicate myself to B&W.

Now, however, I'm entirely dedicated to digital and Photoshop, and inkjet printing.

And further now, my inkjet prints are versions of what I previsualize, whether B&W or color.

Back when I shot Kodachrome (and Ektachrome), my transparencies were very accurate renditions of what I saw...they were accurately what I previsualized.

Today's work has added capabilities that are much like what I did decades ago with darkroom.

Previsualization

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