Perception is the process of identifying and interpreting sensory information. What we perceive can differ significantly from reality.
Perception can also refer to an understanding or vision of things not obvious to others.
“Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others”
Jonathan Swift
I confess to having a weird sense of humour, and that sometimes I see things in images which make me smile but are not necessarily seen by others.
Similarly, I see beauty, colour, light and shade in everything. I am also not a purist, so I process images as I like and to my perception. I like my black and white to be “black & white’ and take my colour shaken not stirred, and a bit in your face. I also sharpen and soften as I feel suits the image, and do not necessarily believe sharpness is a bourgeois concept, but do not worry if the image is a bit so so.
One of the earliest lessons I learned when starting a commercial career is that a customer or art director does not see exactly what I see or “perceive”.
Another lesson was that each image occupies its own space within a frame, but that space might be square, rectangular, panoramic or some other shape.
When using film, you could be trapped by the choice of format- 24×35, 24×65, 6×6, 6×4.5, 6×7, 6×17, 6×9, 6×8, 5×4, 10×8, 16×12 etc., with the only option for framing control being use the frame whole or ‘crop’ later or use a film back on a sheet film camera.
With digital, most cameras have a choice of formats, even mobiles, so you can choose a frame to suit your subject before you make a photograph without having to carry several cameras or think about cropping later (overshoot).
Possibly the kings of frame choice are Fuji cameras.
The first time I picked up a Leica, I loved the frame lines for each lens, but not the loss of real-time depth of field. In Fuji, you can have your cake and eat it.
In 1999, I bought my first one, then a second xPan (Fuji TX) with the three lenses 30mm(17mm), 45mm (25mm) and 90mm(50mm) focal length in brackets for the 24×65 format equivalents.
I commented to a friend it was like having a new pair of eyes, ‘BUT’ still, I had to guess or to calculate depth of field.
Enter the Fuji X100 in 2011, I bought the first or certainly one of the first cameras in the UK.
‘I now had another set of eyes, but I could choose to see the effect of a lens wide open as well as in the projected frame lines’
After the buying and using the X100, I changed totally to Fuji as bodies and lenses became available and sold my beloved Sony A900 and Zeiss lenses.
Now not only could I change frame lines, but I could change film stock without having to carry extra bodies, film backs or dark slides.
Not all was perfect with the X100. For me, the X100 series is a bit small. I like to have a bit of a chunky monkey body in my hands, but guess what, along came the X-Pro series.
Another confession, I have a love of the rangefinder-type body. I do have two X-H1s but they are my least-used cameras, relegated to longer lenses.
In the last article, “Why”, I asked had the mobile killed off cameras, well, of course ‘not’, the way that photography did not kill painting, but mobiles can be very seductive, and the AI algorithms they use, which allow infinite control of areas like depth of field, are fun.
Plus, of course, wherever I am, I have a mobile with a camera built in.
Being of a generation I can appreciate all the advances whilst keeping my feet on terra firma. People going into careers in photography or graphic design these days grow up with and accept the technology and its possibilities without question.
I used to work in a college teaching graphic design and photography, but maybe nowadays it is how to use the technology/AI creatively and hopefully sensitively, which is being taught.
After an 18-month hiatus, I am starting to pick up real (Fuji) cameras again, and it feels good.
Everyone has their personal favourite brand or model of camera, but for me, Fuji re-kindles the first moment I looked through an SLR, but also gives me the tingle I felt the first time I held a Leica.
The enclosed images are personal choice, images made on film and digitally covering the 3 formats-(frame lines) I like.
Could I choose just one frame line? “No”, although I do like the polar opposites of square and panoramic.
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