----- Original Message -----
From: "Randy Little" <randyslittle@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "List for Photo/Imaging Educators - Professionals - Students"
<photoforum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, June 04, 2013 10:14 AM
Subject: Re: June 1, 2013 Reviews
On Mon, Jun 3, 2013 at 9:57 PM, karl shah-jenner
<shahjen@xxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:
most have a 185 degree field of view horizontally.
most have a 15 degree field of attention - that's when we position
ourselves such that the object of our attention feels comfortable (we
stand
a distance from a person such that the face fits with this angle)
most have merely 1/60th of degree of critical focus. hold a match in
front
of you and look at the top of the match head, now the bottom - you can't
focus on both at once!
what you are neglecting here is that our Peripheral vision is crap. Good
only for discerning motion. So when people where doing things like
trying
to figure out formats like 4:3. They where only interested in those
areas
that fell within the area of human vision that had a certain amount of
visual acuity. Less then that was then disregarded as unnecessary.
where does a person place themselves when looking at a persons face? If you
think it is for 47 degree coverage I'd rather never meet you, I do not like
other peoples noses touching mine. How about a keyboard? you'd be about
30cm from it.. Or a book? Do you really read with your face 5cm off a
paperback?
no our actual area of concentration is closer to 10-15 degrees, so 100-135mm
lens looks a lot more 'normal' than 50mm ever did which is why the
'portrait' lens is 100-135mm for 35mm. you will find if you try, that
people position themselves such that the thing they're looking at is most
pleasing when it fills that small angle of view. 50mm (47 degrees-ish)
feels too damned close. 50mm portrait pictures result in disproportionately
large noses.
And, a nice pano of 180 degrees or more will command as much if not more
attention than a shot taken with a 50mm and people will see it as more
realistic and more in keeping with their memory of a scene than a 50mm shot,
so clearly their head builds a wider image - see again, vision and seeing
isn't an eye thing. We may know our outer vision is peripheral, but we then
sweep our eyes about to complete the picture, locking elements in for future
reference (our brain then logs this in memory) and our peripheral vision IS
then used unconsciously to see, to inform us when elements change. .
anything relating a 50mm lens to normal is either a faulty rationalization
or is a misunderstood and mistranslated translation of lens optical features
being conveyed to eyesight.
and then there's that annoying 1/60th of a degree which is our real, actual
true vision - the only bit we see clearly.
