panoramics / civilized ku # 2718-21 ~ dumbing down pictures

interior panoramic ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
granite company ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
working in the ER ~ Allegheny Hospital / Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen
death in ER ~ Allegheny Hospital / Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggenOne of the dumbest bits of picture making advice ever given and it's been given over and over again:

Each picture should have only one principal idea, topic, or center of interest to which the viewer's eyes are attracted. Subordinate elements within the picture must support and focus attention on the principal feature so it alone is emphasized ... A picture without a dominant center of interest or one with more than one dominant center of interest is puzzling to a viewer. Subsequently, the viewer becomes confused and wonders what the picture is all about. When the picture has one, and only one, dominant "point of interest," the viewer quickly understands the picture.

In my picture making life, I have made my fair share of panoramic pictures*, more so in my commercial picturing days, less so in my personal / art endeavors. Of those many pictures - certainly numbering the low 100s - 90% of them were interior panoramics which was the specialty niche I craved out for myself. And, if there's one identifiable hallmark of panoramic pictures - interior or exterior - it's that they contain a lot of visual information, most often multiple center of interest which are spread out over a fair amount of acreage, print wise.

Interior panoramics were most definitely my picturing thing. I was - and still am - captivated / fascinated by the amount of information, visual and otherwise, which can be crammed into an interior panoramic. In addition to a central visual interest, there can be multiple areas of other interests, all of which - in the best application - can combine to tell a very rich story. Even without an obvious central interest, the pictures still work to draw a viewer in.

And that is exactly what my clients liked because, unlike a quick read and move on picture, my interior panoramics held a viewer's attention much longer than a "conventional" view of only part of a similar scene. In the advertising game, it's all about getting a viewer's attention. Better yet, is getting that attention and holding it beyond the quick look. Interior panoramics accomplished that end quite well.

That written, despite all of the visual information / various centers of interest, no one has ever been dazed and confused when viewing one of my interior panoramics. Viewers never had to wonder what the picture(s) were about. In most cases, they readily dove into the pictures' "complexity" and had a rewarding times swimming about.

All of that written, I don't believe panoramic pictures are an exception to the "one center of interest" rule. Any picture, any format, can be visually dense, complex, involving and completely successful as a good/great picture. Sure, a host of boobs and simpletons will run screaming in terror from a picture which requires an effort to "get it". But so what? Is that really the viewership you want to make happy and/or have your pictures appeal to?

FYIThe two top pictures in this entry were made with multiple frames stitched together in Photoshop. The interior pano was made from 8 separate frames, the exterior pano was made from just 4 frames. The bottom two pictures were made with a Widelux 1500 medium format film camera - 2 of my many pictures from the A Day in a Life of an Urban Hospital book. One thing nice about using a panoramic camera for such a project is that my pictures ended up on a lot of two-page spreads.

*My primary workhorse cameras were Widelux cameras (140˚-150˚ fields of view)). I have since sold my Widelux 1500 (120 roll film) but I still have my Widelux F8 (35mm film). On occasion I rented a Roundshot 35mm film camera - they are all digital now - which was capable of making 360˚ pictures.