The section about these two main directions explained the differences between shooting film horizontally and shooting it vertically. In a similar way, the section reminded me of taking pictures in a landscape style as opposed to a portrait style. These styles are different because they portray images from differing perspectives.
For example, a horizontal picture, or landscape style picture, is viewed as calming and serene. Consider this example:
Notice how in this photograph, the eye immediately focuses on the horizon. The eye follows a horizontal line, and focuses on the different elements, but mainly on the finished picture as a whole.
The picture is calming because it was taken with clean, simple, serene lines as the primary focus.
Photographs with a vertical main direction are more striking and exciting. Consider this picture of a skyscraper, and notice where your eyes immediately focus:
In this picture, your eyes immediately look up to see the image from a vertical direction. The upward lines are striking and interesting to look at, rather than calming and serene.
These aspects of Zettl's chapter will be very helpful to me, not only for my video project, but also for the pictures that I take for pleasure and hopefully in the future for my career. It is important to understand the varying elements of a picture, as well as how pictures are viewed and interpreted by audiences.
The questions I would like to bring up for discussion, after reading this article, are first, whether or not these principles and picture elements are understood consciously or subconsciously by most viewers. If so, then how did we come to find out the way they are viewed? How has understanding how viewers look at pictures enhanced photographers' abilities to appeal to people?
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