Gimme yo left, yo right, yo left

I've always been a little confused by the Left Brain/Right Brain thing. I took a Psychology class back in High School but all I remember about that is being told that 1 out of 5 Americans suffers from mental illness. After that we all tried to avoid sitting in the 5th seat. I didn't hear about the Left/Right thing till much later in life when I was studying Photography.

They say that most people fit into one of the two categories. Studies seem to indicate creative people tend to use the left side of their brain more while mechanical people are right brain oriented. I don't know if that's entirely true but I accept it and will use that as the premise of this blog entry.

I believe very strongly that Photographers use both sides of their brains equally. If they didn't, most of the outstanding photographic images you see (perhaps even a few of mine) would never be created. Here's why....

There is a lot of discussion about the ability to "see" an image. You can definitely learn all the rules of thumb regarding composition and lighting but a lot of folks believe that you either have the eye or you don't. I tend to fall into this camp. How else can you explain why someone with a bazillion dollars worth of equipment can create some pretty good images but nothing that really moves you yet a person with basic equipment can photograph the same scene and create a very emotional image.

When I'm out on a photographic expedition and searching out things to photograph the left side of my brain is going at warp speed. Is this an interesting composition? Is the light good now or would it be better at a different time of day? When I decide something might make an interesting image and the camera is brought out, how does it look through the viewfinder? Would it look better if I moved my angle of view? Are there any distracting elements in the frame? Any bright spots that will draw the eye away from the subject? Then come the compositional rules. What's attracted me to this image? Are there leading lines? Repeating patterns? Contrasting elements? All the rules of successful composition run through my subconscious at lightning speed. Most times I don't even think about it, the image just "hits" me. The image of the subdued shadow of the cross on the bell tower is an example of just such a "hit." I saw it and even before turning on the camera I knew how I was going to compose and frame the image.

So if we conclude that the left brain is responsible for "seeing" images, where does the right brain come in? Well, there is a lot of mechanical activity in creating a photograph. Once the left brain has found an image worthy of photographing what now? What lens should I use? A telephoto to compress the elements? A wide angle to stretch the perspective? Should I use a small lens opening for more depth of field or a large lens opening to blur the background? What about shutter speeds? Do I need to freeze or blur movement? Should I use a filter to get the desired effect? A polarizer? Neutral density? How bout a graduated ND filter? Most importantly, do I need to correct the exposure readings or will they be sufficient for this subject? And that's not considering post processing. Was the white balance correct? Did I crop the image correctly? What about burning and dodging? Color correction? Come on right brain, give me guidance. What do I need to do mechanically to execute this image the way I see it in my mind?

Now that we've gotten that data out of the way, let's examine how the process is executed for the two images accompanying this blog beginning with the Shadow of the Cross. I was in Taos, New Mexico for a long weekend and went out to San Francisco De Asis church one morning to photograph the church. I'd photographed the church before and have some nice images but when I visit a place I've previously photographed I'm always looking to improve on the existing images. In this case I didn't think about it being Sunday morning. People were showing up for early morning Mass and were milling around on all sides of the church so the grand elevation shots were impossible. I started looking for detail images and when I finally made my way to the front of the church I looked up at the bell tower and this image "hit" me. I saw it before me and in my mind's eye I saw how it would look as a finished photograph. Now all I had to do was execute the image. ENGAGE RIGHT BRAIN! I had a wide angle zoom on the camera but knew I needed more focal length to isolate the view I wanted so I quickly changed lenses and got the camera mounted on my tripod. What about framing the image? I zoomed in and out a bit to find the composition that most closely matched what I wanted to portray. Now let's think about exposure. The majority of the subject is neutral, probably very near 18% grey reflectance value which is what the meter is going to try to do so no compensation is necessary. There is an area of shadow and an area of white but neither is enough to influence the exposure adversely. Now that exposure is calculated and verified, what about the shutter speed/aperture combination? The subject is static so there's no danger of subject movement and I'm on a tripod so there's no danger of camera movement therefore the shutter speed isn't a determining factor. I don't need to blur a background and the subject is far enough from the camera that a moderate lens opening will give me adequate depth of field. Knowing that all lenses are critically sharpest about 2 stops in from maximum aperture I stopped down to f8 and pushed the button. A glance at the histogram on the LCD display told me I'd nailed the exposure and the preview told me the composition and focus was right on so I was done and on to the next image. The left brain "saw" the image and the right brain made it happen.

But what about the other image? Well, that one came to be in a reverse sequence. It took shape in the right brain first, moved to the left brain for refinement, then back to the right brain for execution. I was attending a photo seminar in San Francisco a few years ago which dealt with both the process of seeing and creating an image but also post processing techinques in Photoshop. One of the quick and dirty techniques we learned in the morning session was a graphic pen technique. Basically Photoshop converts a photograph to a line drawing image using the graphic pen effect. Then using some Photoshop magic you "paint" the color back in, the result being a graphic image that's a bit surreal, similar to a hand colored Black and White photograph. My right brain communicated the mechanical process to the left brain which "saw" an image of the fishing boats at Fisherman's Wharf which would be perfect for this techinque. During the lunch break I hopped on a cable car to the Wharf, composed the image, and exposed it. (The seagull was a bonus) Then back on the cable car and on my way back to the hotel where the seminar was being held. A quick download from the camera to the computer, the graphic pen effect was initiated, the color was painted back in and there was the image, just as I'd seen it in my mind.

So there you have it. The left brain "creates" the imaginary image and the right brain takes over to mechanically execute it. In my opinion there's no doubt about it. Successful photographers are mentally ambidextrous.

Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment and we'll discuss it.