What do you think this photo is about?
I teach fellow my photographers how to incorporate the elements of visual design and composition into their imagery. I teach these elements at an online school with the BPSOP. I also teach the same elements in the “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet.
After a long hiatus, I’ve begun teaching my class on how to use the six principles of Gestalt to “make stronger photos; the ones people will remember. Gestalt is all about making the viewer an active participant and as a result, it also makes him work harder when looking at our photos.
Whether it’s about having him discovering new things when he’s looking, or leading him around the frame via directional lines and Vanishing Points, or the ways to imply more content outside of the frame, Gestalt is about Visual Perception…what the camera beholds, the viewer will perceive.`
Seems like Moses said something like that when he parted the Red Sea!!!
🙂
The viewer’s perception stops when he has gathered all the visual and sometimes esoteric/obscure information. At this point, the processing of the information takes over. What he was looking at, now that he’s taken in all the different parts, is now looking at the whole; the basic theory behind Gestalt.
There’s a lot of factors (that are the photographers’ responsibility) in what the viewer will walk away with. The process part is a series of steps the viewer will need to go through to achieve whatever end he was after the split second before he snapped the shutter.
One of the first things to consider is whether you’ve given meaning to your photo. Make sure it says what you wanted it to say because you won’t always be around to explain your intent unless you were going for an abstract in which case each viewer will walk away with something different. If you weren’t going for an abstract, then your photo needs to be a quick read.
If your photo is too esoteric the viewer won’t process the information fairly quickly. I’ve learned from watching people at photo openings that he or she will move on leaving you with a photo that you’ll be the only one to admire…and that would suck!!!
Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.
JoeB
