Composition and culture

[Sirius Glass]

Do we compose the scene as we see it before us, or as it appears on the GG (upside down and reversed)?

Regardless of format [35mm, 6x6, 4"x5"], I compose with the shape of the format before I look at the viewfinder or ground glass. I will walk to several positions before I settle on a location. This I have been doing for years before taking up LF. If I set up the tripod and the LF camera to look at the ground glass at every position I consider, I would have very short photographic days from all the work setting up and re-setting up!

Steve

[paulr]

Do we compose the scene as we see it before us, or as it appears on the GG (upside down and reversed)?

I find that the upside down / backwards image in the ground glass looks formally equivalent to the image in its final orientation. Or close to it .. sometimes things shift in regards to the perceived weight of things that are high or low.

If the image is just flipped in one of those directions (like in a mirror) everything changes and feels disorienting. Or in the case of a picture that doesn't quite work, sometimes the mirror image works better.

[Nathan Potter]

paulr, your comment above got me thinking a bit about the upside down/wrong reading image on the ground glass. For years this bothered me in selecting the most suitable composition for an image. But gradually I became so used to the GG image that I did not perceive it to be upside down. Even later, and now, I seem to see the real scene as if it were on the GG. Too many hours and years staring at a GG?

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

[cyrus]

Robert Bringhurst, a Canadian poet and Typographer writes a bit about this in his excellent book The Elements of Typographic Style. He looks at elements of design that are common between cultures that are unlikely to have exerted any influence on each other.

I guess THe Golden Mean could be one of these common cultural conceptions of design. The breathtaking Jomeh Mosque in Isfahan (the "Chatres of Iran") as well as the city layout are based on that (http://www.travel-pictures-gallery.c...ahan-0002.html) but who knows if this was cross-cultural or simply independently-derived. In any case, makes for fantastic architectural photos!