visualisation

[John Koehrer]

Visualization=gee whiz, that would make a neat picture.
Don't need to read too much into it.

 

[Jorge]

Jorge, I really like the way your Convento de la Santa Cruz hallway turned out - your decision to make the light progressive in the image was an excellent one. Could you describe in more detail how you metered to achieve the end result? Thanks!

Digidurst, I use the BTZS so it was a matter of adjusting the metering for the "shadows" so that it gave me a high EV value in the shadows. If I had adjusted the metering so that I got a low EV value in the shadows, I would have exposed longer and the tones in the arch would have been much higher.

 

[Will S]

Does anyone know when Ansel Adams started using the term "previsualization"? I ran across a usage of this term by Edward Weston in 1936. I'm guessing he got it from Adams, but maybe it was the other way around? In either case, Weston doesn't seem to have any problems with it, and that is good enough for me...

Thanks,

Will

 

[c6h6o3]

So, at the risk of inviting anti-Ansel scorn, does anyone actually use the Zone VI B&W viewing filter that Fred Picker recommended (and sold BTW)?

I haven't seen or used one, seemed like it might be interesting to look at though.

Nathan

I've got one lying around somewhere. You want it? That and his set of "fine reference prints" were the only things I ever bought from Zone VI which turned out to be absolutely useless.

 

[Nathan Smith]

I've got one lying around somewhere. You want it? That and his set of "fine reference prints" were the only things I ever bought from Zone VI which turned out to be absolutely useless.

Sure, I'd like to try it. PM'ing you now.

Thanks, Nathan

 

[Ruvy]

your inability to pre-visualize is a personal failing that might be remedied by some ritual, like viewing through a filter, but more likely is simply beyond your artistic potential.

Jay

I can't visualize by means of seeing a detailed image in my mind at all. In my trade (landscape architect) it is expected to know what you design or in other word to visualize it. Being innovative designer (and well respected among colleagues and critiques) one may ask where is this creativity coming from. I have no answers but I think that there must be more than one way to visualize and imagination has more than one channel to present itself. Perhaps one channel is the mental and another is the emotional each using different method of visualization. I verbalize concepts and than form them into design using pensile and paper. I do same with my photography.
Being less knowledgable in photography I do make mistake and good amount of my images are not to my liking. That doesn't make me less artistic - just more critical. Here, in my creative process starts another thread - time. A design or an image I have liked today I may dislike two days from now and need to re-do. Too many participants here left an impression that through visualization all their images are right on. I must admit it is something that is very difficult for me to buy. I also have a hard time to accept a suggestion to someone who is short on one form of visualization that he is out of his artistic potential. Saying so is taking a license I will never take.

 

[alien]

Hi Ruvy,
this is exactly how I feel...I can not 'see' or 'visualise' an image in all detail in my head, its just not there.
I do however have a pretty good idea what I want, and hope that my experience (which I am constantly working on) will allow me to come close to that idea...and still you get surprises when you take the film out of the development tank (nice and not so nice ones).
And you know what? Thats why I like analogue photography so much...the moment when you see the negatives the first time, or when you switch on the light to have the first proper look at your picture. And nobody should tell me that a little monitor on your camera is in any way a substitute for that!

 

[Bob F.]

Does anyone know when Ansel Adams started using the term "previsualization"? I ran across a usage of this term by Edward Weston in 1936. I'm guessing he got it from Adams, but maybe it was the other way around? In either case, Weston doesn't seem to have any problems with it, and that is good enough for me...

Thanks,

Will

I do not think you will find the word in any of Adams' books. He seems to have used "visualize" exclusively when I checked the indices some time back. "Previsualize" seems to be a Minor White creation.

Bob.

 

[Thomassauerwein]

I have no idea what "AA" or "EW" have said about this, have not read them maybe I should. I think there is a definate distinction between "planning" an image and "pre-visualization". One deals with the tecknical the other the mental. Personally I find it very hard to previsualize. Work very hard at it sometimes even to the point of sketching and drawing to figure out what it is I'm trying to visualize. After all of that, the image is always a compromise of actual componants blended with the tecknical. The tecknical part is easy. Finding the magic of an idea is elusive always shows up after I've stopped looking for it. I certainly don't think you can find the answer to this question in a book. It is a personal quest. One so individual that once you've taken the journey the answers you evolve are your own. So much so you probably don't even ask the questions any more. From my viewpoint after a certain point being a book junkie clutters the intuitive parts of the brain. With out that part pre-visualization is impossible. Kind of like potatoes, They have eyes but they can't see!

 

[Will S]

I do not think you will find the word in any of Adams' books. He seems to have used "visualize" exclusively when I checked the indices some time back. "Previsualize" seems to be a Minor White creation.

Bob.

There is a quote from E.W. in the "Nudes" collection from a letter of his to A.A. dated 1936 in which he uses the term. Aperture started in 1952 and White was born in 1908, so I don't see how he could have invented it.

Group F/64 was formed in '34 I think, so it makes sense that someone invented the term around then.

Best,

Will

 

[c6h6o3]

Group F/64 was formed in '34 I think,

1932, actually.

 

[Donald Miller]

Does anyone know when Ansel Adams started using the term "previsualization"? I ran across a usage of this term by Edward Weston in 1936. I'm guessing he got it from Adams, but maybe it was the other way around? In either case, Weston doesn't seem to have any problems with it, and that is good enough for me...

Thanks,

Will

The first time that I remember Adams mentioning this was in regard to making his exposure on... Monolith The Face of Halfdome...As I recall he made two exposures that afternoon and then he had a vision of what he wanted the image to be and exposed his last glass plate with the red filter. I believe that exposure was made in 1927.

Since this vision occurred prior to making his pivotal exposure, I would assume that this would mean previsualization.

 

[David H. Bebbington]

It seems that the English language already provides a word to describe the act of forming mental visual images, so why tack on a prefix?

In my day job (writing about industrial automation equipment), I very frequently encounter visualization systems, which turn things you normally could not see (electrical signals, process states, etc.) into visual form. The term "visualization" is also used in this way in photography, for example advertising photographers turn an art director's idea or concept into visual form. I therefore feel that there is ample justification for the term "pre-visualization" to mean seeing something in your mind's eye before you turn it into concrete form. It's one of those terms like "post-modern" - linguistically it may grate, but it's useful and so it's gained acceptance.

Regards,

David

 

[Will S]

There is a quote from E.W. in the "Nudes" collection from a letter of his to A.A. dated 1936 in which he uses the term. Aperture started in 1952 and White was born in 1908, so I don't see how he could have invented it.

Group F/64 was formed in '34 I think, so it makes sense that someone invented the term around then.

Best,

Will

You know, I'm not sure where I saw that quote now. If I can find the reference I'll post it.

Sorry,

Will

 

[Ed Sukach]

Ah, a battle of "absolutes".
My OPINION - your milage may vary:

I do not THINK perfect pre-visualization is possible. At the same time, I, equally do not think that anyone with more than ten minutes experience with his/her finished work can AVOID pre-visualization before s/he executes their next photograph.

Wo/Man is not perfect, nor are we absolutely imperfect, in that broad area between concept and finished product.

Do I pre-visualize? Certainly. Every time. Is that pre-visualization conscious ALL the time? No. Most of the time it is pre-conscious.
Do my pre-visualizations work (perfectly) all the time. No. Most of the time I get "pretty close", but never perfectly there. At times, I fail miserably - the finished print/transparency is FAR from what I thought (hoped) to achieve. At other times, the finished result is not the same as my pre-visualization, but a whole lot "better".

This photography activity is a slippery slope. I never know exactly what will happen. I LOVE it. Let those who are seeking concrete security go elsewhere. It is like knowing exactly what will happen in life.
No adventure? No fortunate accidents?
What would be the point in a life - or photography - as BORING as that?

 

[modafoto]

I try to visualize, but often I get surprised (both negatively and positively).

 

[c6h6o3]

The first time that I remember Adams mentioning this was in regard to making his exposure on... Monolith The Face of Halfdome...As I recall he made two exposures that afternoon and then he had a vision of what he wanted the image to be and exposed his last glass plate with the red filter. I believe that exposure was made in 1927.

Since this vision occurred prior to making his pivotal exposure, I would assume that this would mean previsualization.

From Adams, Ansel; Examples The Making of 40 Photographs, p. 4:

"This photograph represents my first conscious visualization, in my mind's eye. I saw (with reasonable completeness) the final image as made with the red filter. I knew little of 'controls'. My exposures were based on experience, and I followed the usual basic information on lenses, filter factors, and development times. The red filter did what I expected it to do. I was fortunate that I had that twelfth plate left!

Over the years I became increasingly aware of the importance of visualization. The ability to anticipate - to see in the mind's eye, so to speak - the final print while viewing the subject makes it possible to apply the numerous controls of the craft in precise ways that contribute to achieving the desired results."

......

Ibid, p. 5:

"I can still recall the excitement of seeing the visualization "come true" when I removed the plate from the fixing bath for examination. The desired values were all there in their beautiful negative interpretation. This was one of the most exciting moments of my photographic career."