How much do you REALLY see when you set out to take a picture? Do you ‘see but not observe’ to paraphrase Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Conan Doyle, ‘A Study in Scarlet’)? Ansel Adams spends some time talking about the difference between what you see and what the camera sees. “The eye has enormous selective power.” (’Camera & Lens’, p17). Our visual system can take in an enormous amount of detail and without any conscious thought, can focus on parts of what we see, adjusting for lighting conditions and isolating a subject from the surroundings. We have an amazing visual system, but that wonderful visual system is the enemy of good photography.
“ … Our lens does not share our excitement and selectivity; it merely records - with faithful observance of the geometric rules of perspective, image size, etc.” (’Camera & Lens’, p17). How many times have you heard someone say how disappointed they were with a picture because it wasn’t what they SAW? It happens especially with landscapes, a view that strikes you and causes you to take a picture but only to find that the elements that were so impressive seem to have lost their grandeur when captured on film.
Visualization, as Adams explains it, is seeing as the camera sees with all of it’s limitations. George DeWolfe in his book ‘Digital Masters: B&W Printing’ puts it like this: “The fundamental error in what both the sensor of a camera and the retina of the eye see is that it is not what is perceived in the brain as visually real.” (B&W Printing p35). He goes on to say that:
- “We need to see like the camera sees in order to capture an accurate two-dimensional luminance image.”
- “… we need to manipulate the luminance image to conform to our perception of the subject or scene …”
(B&W Printing p35)
As I starting thinking through what I wanted to say here about seeing, a very good post made it online at the Digital Photography School web site called 4 Practice Techniques to Develop Photographic Observation by Christina N Dickson. The focus of this post is that we ALL need to practice observation (or seeing or in Adams terms Visualization). Dickson’s advice boils down to:
- Analyze - look at an object in depth and notice everything about it that you can
- Exhaust Perspective - take as many pictures as you can of a single object from as many different perspectives as you can
- Evaluate your Locations - analyze the location you’re shooting at in depth, take nothing for granted
- Take Pictures in your Mind - create images in your mind from what you see around you, visualize whether you have a camera at hand or not
Many years ago, I started to draw more seriously. I didn’t do this because I had any talent. I don’t. My motivation was to force myself to SEE what is actually there in front of me without the normal processing the Human Visual System imposes on everything we see. Just recently, while reading DeWolfe’s book, I found this advice about learning to see: “In order to take good photographs, we first have to see two-dimensional space, the space of the retina and camera sensor. … The easiest way I know to learn to see two-dimensional space is through the art of drawing.” (B&W Printing p36).
DeWolfe goes on to recommend Betty Edwards book ‘Drawing on the Right Aide of the Brain’ as a good resource if you’re learning to draw. That and her workbook ‘The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Workboo’k a more than enough to help you SEE better.
I started with Edwards book ‘Drawing on the Artist Within’ which I found first, but the first two books are the best, at least for me.
Personally, I tried dozens of books and always felt that they didn’t really help me. They seemed to assume a talent I lacked. Edwards’ books were different. I found them enjoyable and they helped me to really SEE. As bad as I still am at drawing, it has immeasurably improved my photography by making me more aware of what is REALLY there.

Waiting for a Plane at the Houston Airport
Working late in my room
Practice makes perfect when it comes to seeing like a camera. Adams talks about ‘Dry Shooting’ (Camera & Lens, pp 15 & 35-37). “The photographer should constantly practice ’seeing’ images, establishing shape relationships; exploring relative scale of subject and space, avoiding mergers of edge and shape, etc., in the world about him.” (’Camera & Lens’ p37).
Adams describes ‘dry shooting’ like this: “ … select something that presents both an opportunity and a problem: visualize, setup the camera, compose, focus, read the luminances, determine exposure and related development, etc. - But you do not actually make the picture!” Based on Adams writings about Polaroid Photography and it’s use as feedback, I feel sure that if he were writing today, he’d actually recommend taking the digital picture and then spending some time comparing it to your visualization. However far you carry it, it’s good practice. For myself, I try to think like a camera every day, whether I’ve got a camera with me or not (actually, I’m rarely without some means to taking a photo … more on this some other time). I try to look at something and see it as a photograph.
Digital cameras make it so easy to capture a picture, any picture, that there is almost no excuse for not having an image to review. During a return trip from Southern California, I had only my TREO 600 cell phone with me, but I loved the view of Mt Shasta visible from the rest stop at the Weed Airport northwest of the mountain. With no control, no choices, and a fixed lens, I still wanted to capture the mountain as I saw it in it’s surroundings. Handholding my phone, bracing against my car, I took a series of pictures back and forth across the mountain then stitched them together in Photoshop to create the image I ’saw’ in looking at the mountain. I’ve come back with proper equipment and done this picture several times, but none of my attempts pleases me as much as this flawed image which still makes me feel as awed by the mountain as I have always been.
Mount Shasta from the Weed Airport Rest Step Northbound
Space, and the twelve clean winds are here; And with them broods eternity—a swift, white peace, a presence manifest. The rhythm ceases here. Time has no place. This is the end that has no end.from Tietjens, The Most-Sacred Mountain
also quoted in Robert Heinlein, ‘Lost Legacy,’
a 1941 novella included in the book
‘Assignment in Eternity’