Behind the scenes

[MGrayson]

The trip to Patagonia has been wonderful. Good light and good people. I highly recommend Visionary Wild / Justin Black. His trips are well-managed and top shelf. Here I am in my failed struggle to stay dry and to keep the tripod from buzzing in the wind. Classic shot from Lago Pehoe in classic Patagonia conditions.

I was committed to using frame averaging to blur the water, so 9/10 attempts were ruined by the wind. But I was able to find a few gaps between gusts. sk60xl, Alpa STC, IQ4-150, tilt and 5mm back rise (the bottom foreground is cropped).

Dave

Beautiful! REALLY captures the spirit of the place. I was there on the only windless week anyone could remember. It was weird. That lake was glassy smooth.

 

[GeorgeBo]

Shooting some of the waterfalls in Upstate South Carolina this weekend.

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[tcdeveau]

The trip to Patagonia has been wonderful. Good light and good people. I highly recommend Visionary Wild / Justin Black. His trips are well-managed and top shelf. Here I am in my failed struggle to stay dry and to keep the tripod from buzzing in the wind. Classic shot from Lago Pehoe in classic Patagonia conditions.

I was committed to using frame averaging to blur the water, so 9/10 attempts were ruined by the wind. But I was able to find a few gaps between gusts. sk60xl, Alpa STC, IQ4-150, tilt and 5mm back rise (the bottom foreground is cropped).

Dave

Great shot Dave! I've only been to the Patagonia region once, and it was further north than Torres Del Paine. The wind in that area of the world is something else for sure. We were fly fishing which was....difficult haha.

 

[rdeloe]

Shooting some of the waterfalls in Upstate South Carolina this weekend.

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Just had a little moment here looking at this image... I'd forgotten that it in the chimney finder the image is reversed. Dh'o. It's been a while obviously....

Taking a picture of the LCD on a digital camera doesn't have quite the impact that this kind of image does.

 

[GeorgeBo]

Just had a little moment here looking at this image... I'd forgotten that it in the chimney finder the image is reversed. Dh'o. It's been a while obviously....

Taking a picture of the LCD on a digital camera doesn't have quite the impact that this kind of image does.

Now just go to a view camera and turn yourself upside down

 

[jng]

Just had a little moment here looking at this image... I'd forgotten that it in the chimney finder the image is reversed. Dh'o. It's been a while obviously....

Taking a picture of the LCD on a digital camera doesn't have quite the impact that this kind of image does.

Indeed! And amusingly, when I discovered the joys of flipping up the screen of the CFV back to use it like a waist level finder as I did way back in the day with my old 500 bodies, I became hopelessly confused orienting the camera as the image was not reversed! So yes, while it’s been a while for me as well, these old habits do die hard.

John

 

[MGrayson]

The waist-level view is reversed left-right but not up-down. The view camera is reversed both left-right and up-down. And the dust speck location on the sensor is reversed up-down but not left-right.

Fascinating place, three-dimensions.

 

[rdeloe]

Now just go to a view camera and turn yourself upside down

That's the embarrassing thing... I come from 4x5!

 

[pegelli]

I think this cartoon shows the effect of left-right and up-down with a technical camera in practice

 

[JoelM]

The waist-level view is reversed left-right but not up-down. The view camera is reversed both left-right and up-down. And the dust speck location on the sensor is reversed up-down but not left-right.

Fascinating place, three-dimensions.

View cameras have no mirrors. Waist level finder has one mirror therefore the front to back reversal (left/right), but our lovely DSLRs have a prism, like binoculars.

 

[MGrayson]

View cameras have no mirrors. Waist level finder has one mirror therefore the front to back reversal (left/right), but our lovely DSLRs have a prism, like binoculars.

It's the dust specks that need some thought. No mirrors, and yet reversal in only one direction. It's the same as sitting inside a camera obscura. The image on the wall is reversed top to bottom, but not left to right. I've written an essay on this called "The Starfish in the Mirror", but I think an abridged version for photography is in order. (Starfish don't have left and right - they have clockwise and counterclockwise.)

 

[JoelM]

Yes, but the misinformation is that a mirror reverses left and right as that isn't the actual case.

 

[anyone]

Indeed! And amusingly, when I discovered the joys of flipping up the screen of the CFV back to use it like a waist level finder as I did way back in the day with my old 500 bodies, I became hopelessly confused orienting the camera as the image was not reversed! So yes, while it’s been a while for me as well, these old habits do die hard.

John

+1

I even wrote a feature request to reverse the screen to Hasselblad…

 

[MGrayson]

Yes, but the misinformation is that a mirror reverses left and right as that isn't the actual case.

Yes, indeed. The interesting question is: why do we think it does? Saying "mirrors reverse front and back" is true, but doesn't explain our almost universal belief that they reverse left and right. I've now wandered too OT even for me, so will start a thread dedicated to mirrors, reversal, sensors, film, and viewfinders. And the culprit - that every rotation of the sphere has a fixed point.

 

[Shashin]

And here I was thinking I just mounted my lens upside-down on my view camera...

 

[JoelM]

Yes, indeed. The interesting question is: why do we think it does? Saying "mirrors reverse front and back" is true, but doesn't explain our almost universal belief that they reverse left and right. I've now wandered too OT even for me, so will start a thread dedicated to mirrors, reversal, sensors, film, and viewfinders. And the culprit - that every rotation of the sphere has a fixed point.

Agreed, but I tell people that if it did indeed reverse left and right, it would also have to do up and down. If you lay on a table your head is still on the same side (I hope).

 

[TimoK]

You always can flip horizontally the mirror in PS.

 

[jng]

It's the dust specks that need some thought. No mirrors, and yet reversal in only one direction. It's the same as sitting inside a camera obscura. The image on the wall is reversed top to bottom, but not left to right. I've written an essay on this called "The Starfish in the Mirror", but I think an abridged version for photography is in order. (Starfish don't have left and right - they have clockwise and counterclockwise.)

Not sure about the starfish, but isn’t the reason why the image in the camera obscura is not reversed left to right when viewing it a simple matter of perspective of the viewer? In other words, in this case you are viewing the image projected on the wall whereas in the case of the viewfinder you are in essence viewing from the opposite side? I suspect I must be missing something pretty basic here so look forward to being thoroughly disabused of my (il)logic upon reading your essay, abridged for photographers and lowly experimentalists such as myself.

John

 

[4x5Australian]

Yes, indeed. The interesting question is: why do we think it does? Saying "mirrors reverse front and back" is true, but doesn't explain our almost universal belief that they reverse left and right. I've now wandered too OT even for me, so will start a thread dedicated to mirrors, reversal, sensors, film, and viewfinders. And the culprit - that every rotation of the sphere has a fixed point.

Matt, perhaps the answer to your question is related to the one I often ask: Why do some people persist in their belief that the vertical sides of buildings converge? (To the extent that they will deliberately introduce convergence into their images to counter the vertical sides their levelled cameras provide, which they insist are unnatural).

My tentative answer is that our expectations tend to override or determine what we see.

Rod

 

[MGrayson]

I created a thread to discuss mirrors and orientation. "Behind the Scenes" is too valuable to clutter up with math .

Matt