Canon has released a really cool commercial to promote their imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 printer. They have decided to track the movement of the eye as it views a photograph. They used three subjects; a non-photographer, a photography student, and a full time professional. This was done to illustrate where each of these subjects focused, and for how long.
The results are probably not all too surprising. It shows that as experience level grows so does our observation of detail. I think that a lot of photographers would nod in agreement that they do in fact spend a lot of time analyzing and scrutinizing their images. Perhaps more than a healthy dose. Often times we can be our own worst critics.
One has to wonder if we focus on details too much, or if this is in fact a good trait, and a sign of refined taste and knowing what to look for.
[via DIYPhotography]
I think they have gold. But still no big whites.
The white would keep the printer from overheating if you put it in a sunny window, right? A white printer would make a pretty sweet stand for my 300 f/2.8, though ;)
Interesting.
Although the sentiment seems true, this analysis could conversely show that people tend to look at their own work more closely and passionate people linger a bit longer than the non-passionate population.
Where these results could be interesting is studying eye movement over abstract artwork, but that's not exactly something that would help sell printers...
i hope that this is not their printer commercial.
Very interesting though Joel Grimes also happens to be color blind, so I would imagine he would concentrate more on the light and shadows of an image.
Great point Mike. I am color blind as well, and I definitely look at light before color. As for the overall test, I would love to see a wider test group on this to see an average of how different groups view photos. Why wouldn't Canon do this?
Thought this study was going to be more scientific... because now I'm really curious if these trends hold up with a larger sample size.
very interesting (even though its an advertisement)!
Joel is one my favorites!
I think this is a great ad...selling me a printer without really selling me at all. Simply appealing to my visual sense with an interesting narrative.
Awesome advert!