Effect of the upside-down image

[Narcissist]

My move the LF has been fairly recent and at first the upside-down image on the groundglass was disorientating and difficult to use. I have quickly got used to it and I think it has actually helped my compositions since what I see on the GG is slightly divorced from what is in front of me so it looks more of an image rather than a simply a 'viewfinder'.

I have read that some people think there is a link with the fact that you brain has to invert the image your eye sees so that it is quite natural or that it being upside-down means it is easier to see as abstract shapes.

Often I just don't even realise that the image is upside-down anymore when I am using my camera!?

What was your response to this upside-down image when you started LF?

[Patrik Roseen]

I think you covered it already - much easier to get used to than one would think and it does help composition, especially for landscape and such seceneries.
Sometimes I still 'stand on my head' just to make sure I am not fooling myself, i.e just checking if the composition works also seen the 'normal' way.

For still life and portraiture using my Linhof Kardan I have a mirror viewfinder correcting the up-side-down-thing.
It helps in still life situations where one needs to move objects around to improve the composition. Without it I have a tendency to move the real object in the wrong direction.
For portraiture it might be hard to interpret a facial expression seen up side down.

[Greg Lockrey]

When I was taking drawing classes, we used to invert the picture to see how the composition was coming along, and also looking at it in the mirror help to see any perpective distortions. You don't have to worry about distortions with a camera, but looking at the composition up side down definitly helps.

[Lucas M]

I thought it was very neat. I don't notice it much now but if I show someone else, that is one of their major reactions. I am now even used to panning to the right or up if I want the image to go left or down. I think it aids in composition too.

[SamReeves]

Agreed with the others. It makes you very conscious of the upside down world! :D

[Kirk Gittings]

What was your response to this upside-down image when you started LF?

You see the effect here....wholesale insanity.

[domenico Foschi]

Too much blood in the brain....:)


You see the effect here....wholesale insanity.

[Ben Chase]

I think, if anything, it's helped me compose much better than before.

[Ash]

I love it for the above reasons, but since buying a Razzle I'm not getting much inversion :)

[SAShruby]

I always have that feeling image on the ground glass looks far more dramatic and compositionally better than my final print. I dunno, maybe I'm not there yet.

[Scott Knowles]

It's what Gregory says from what I've read, it's sometimes easier for the brain to think when it sees an upside down reversed image. It's how they sometimes teach people to draw because it changes the brain's balance and thinking between the hemispheres trying to resolve an unfamilar image. I also discovered how easy and quick it was to compose images when I would stand there for minutes with a 35mm camera. Part of my problem is the prism effect I have where each eye sees a slightly different level. I have to pay extra attention to keep lines horizontal and/or vertical since I don't have a dominant eye.

[Leonard Metcalf]

When you draw something upside down you can't immediately recognise the object, so people leave out what they think it should look like. For a full description of this technique you can see Betty Edwards book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". When artists do this exercise they are learning to draw what they see. I believe that when you look at the image upside down you initially see the shapes, and composition, until you get to the point where you invert it again (some people here have said that this is so for them). As Greg says "it helps".

[Gary Tarbert]

When you draw something upside down you can't immediately recognise the object, so people leave out what they think it should look like. For a full description of this technique you can see Betty Edwards book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". When artists do this exercise they are learning to draw what they see. I believe that when you look at the image upside down you initially see the shapes, and composition, until you get to the point where you invert it again (some people here have said that this is so for them). As Greg says "it helps".I agree , And i am one who now Does not notice, when composing an image
now i just automaticly go too the the top too check foreground detail.
This has not allways been the case and i did struggle a little with it an the early days.
I also find with 8x10 it is actually more natural feeling again , might just be me.Cheers Gary

[Annie M.]

When I started shooting every day with a view camera I began dreaming upside down. At first I attributed it to an effect similar to that of Stratton glasses but I now think it is much more that just the way the brain is wired...there may a cultural componet to the phenomena as well. Small children initially do not have an up/down preference for viewing images. Also (although I have never been able to locate the study so it is anecdotal) when the Inuit were shown photographic images by anthropologists they showed no preference for image orientation and when they displayed favorite photographs in their homes many were upside down. There was also a situation in South America where forest people were give video cameras to document their world... they preferred to 'rub' the cameras on elements of their environment and even each other for portraits... and apparently they found their images perfectly logical. There are a lot of mysteries about what is actually happening when we see our world through a lens... it is nebulous at best and may be a phenomenon of lens culture as well as the physics of light.

[poco]

I have real problems using a digital P&S because the little LCD on the back reminds me of looking at a ground glass and I tend to pan and tilt it backwards. The first time I did it I didn't realize the (mis)connection my brain was making and thought I was losing it when I couldn't point the damned thing where I wanted.

[David_Senesac]

I shot with a 35mm SLR over a decade and then 6x7 so the right side up orientation is more natural. I've gotten relatively used to the upsidedown groundglass image though would strongly prefer one right side up. For me shooting outdoor landscapes makes evaluation of the overall scene somewhat ineffective. While framing I always combine what I see under the hood with occasional poking my head out for hand and finger rectangle framing of a subject right side up in order to better evaluate what I'm doing. Long before I shot 4x5, I'd learned to spend a lot of effort and time if necessary carefully composing shots. In particular, frame geometry of scene elements has always been very imnportant. Structuring scene elements with upsidedown geometries does not always have an aesthetic result though may appear interesting inverted on a groundglass. ...David

[walter23]

I have read that some people think there is a link with the fact that you brain has to invert the image your eye sees so that it is quite natural or that it being upside-down means it is easier to see as abstract shapes.

I don't think that has anything to do with anything. It's not like there's some part of your brain that sees an upside down image all the time or anything; it's just a function of the way your eyes are wired up with the rest of your sensory system. An upside down image on the ground glass is still an upside down image to your brain.


What was your response to this upside-down image when you started LF?

At first I couldn't move my camera properly left & right to change composition but now it's just as natural as looking at a rightside up image. I barely even notice the inversion. I do think it helps uncouple raw geometric composition from the content of the scene in some respects, but maybe that fades as you get used to look at the upside down image and the content becomes natural again.

[Vaughn]

It's not like there's some part of your brain that sees an upside down image all the time or anything; it's just a function of the way your eyes are wired up with the rest of your sensory system. An upside down image on the ground glass is still an upside down image to your brain.

Actually, the brain probably does receive an upside-down and reversed image -- simple optics...that is the type of image that is thrown onto the back of our eyeballs. I suppose there is a small possibility that the image is converted to a right-side up and non-reverse image thru mechanical means before it reaches the brain, but I doubt it.

A common experiment is to give someone special glasses that optically turn everything upside down. People adjust fairly quickly to this...but it takes them much longer to re-adjust once the glasses are taken off. I think this relates to our viewing of the GG, also.

I started off using a Rolleiflex -- I was already use to things being backwards...going to backwards and upside down seemed quite natural. I remember reaching the point where after a long composing/focusing session under the darkcloth, I emerged to find that the "real" world seemed upsdie down.

I find composing upside-down to be a plus of using LF.

Vaughn

[Leonard Evens]

I got used to it pretty quickly. When I look at the gg, I realize the image is rotated 180 degrees if I think about it. But when i remember the scene as seen on the gg afterwards, I always remember it as right side up.

I agree that the fact that the image on your retina is rotated the same way has nothing to do with it.

[David Karp]

Like Leonard, I always remember the image right side up. The funny thing is that unless I am very familiar with the scene, I remember the image flipped left to right the way it was on the GG! This has caused some disorientation at times when trying to figure out how to put the negative in the carrier.

[Doug Dolde]

I use the Arca Swiss reflex viewer mostly because I hate using a darkcloth. But I don't find viewing upside down to be either a benefit or detriment.

[John Kasaian]

To me the upside down image acts sort of like a dis-connect. Under the dark cloth its a "picture" while looking at the landscape its real life, Baby! (sorry for reverting to my former personality as an "international man of mystery" there) Back under the dark cloth I have to be attentive to make sure everything is contained on the gg while when I'm out from under I'm the one contained by the landscape.
Cheers!

[eddie]

its upside down?!?!?!?!

i am going to go check now.

[Rakesh Malik]

Actually, the brain probably does receive an upside-down and reversed image -- simple optics...that is the type of image that is thrown onto the back of our eyeballs. I suppose there is a small possibility that the image is converted to a right-side up and non-reverse image thru mechanical means before it reaches the brain, but I doubt it.



There's nothing mechanical to rectify the data in there, unless you've had something implanted. :)

We see inverted images, and we process them as such. It's the same as with a P&S with an LCD display; it "sees" inverted images, but what's on the screen is rectified (and then inverted yet again by the lenses in our eyeballs :)).

I personally find that composing on the ground glass works better for me as well, because it's easier to disassociate myself from the subject and concentrate on the composition itself.