John Suler's PhotoPsychology
Photographic Psychology: Texture
Texture is one of the most intriguing, even mysterious aspects of photography. It stimulates the sensation of touch. Whereas our sense of vision operates at a distance from the world, the sense of touch brings us up close and personal, to the sensitivity of our fingertips, face, and skin.
Different light sources will draw out different texture qualities. Front lighting might emphasize sharp, bold, constrasty textures, as when bright sunlight comes over your shoulder and shines onto the metal, wood, and brick surface of a building. Side lighting creates fine shadows that accentuate detailed textures, as well as the surface qualities of an object’s three-dimensional form. Imagine the effect of the setting sun on a statue in a field of grass. Diffuse light helps us appreciate the subtle tones of smooth, silky textures, as evident in the foliage of trees under an overcast sky.
The sensations created by textures are almost endless. Sharp, silky, gritty, bumpy, scratchy. The memories and emotions they stir can be equally varied and subtle. Sometimes the feelings aroused cannot be easily verbalized. They exist beyond words. Not having yet developed language or even sophisticated visual abilities, infants rely on the sensation of touch to experience the world. They explore the environment with their hands and put everything into their mouths.
The texture of hair, skin, lips, a teddy bear, a baby blanket, bubbles, a faint prick of a pin. Just my mentioning these things probably creates within you a distinct sensation, memory, or feeling. This is the power of using texture in photography. It can activate very personal, deeply felt experiences.
People differ in whether they notice and in how they react to texture. Those with “kinesthetic” sensitivities – who are tuned to bodily sensations – respond more readily. It’s interesting to note that on the Rorschach test, the tendency to perceive textures in the inkblots is associated with needs concerning interpersonal attachment and contact comfort.
Texture means “touching.”
Technical note: Textures can change subtly or dramatically with different levels of sharpening and blur. I think the ideal degree of sharpening for the image above is somewhere in between the original larger view and the flickr-sharpened version above. It was hard for me to predict just how much flickr would sharpen this one.
See my touchy feely set for the kinds of texture shots that I like.
Feel free to post your own favorite texture shots!
* This image and essay are part of a book on Photographic Psychology that I’m writing within Flickr. Please see the set description.
Photographic Psychology: Texture
Texture is one of the most intriguing, even mysterious aspects of photography. It stimulates the sensation of touch. Whereas our sense of vision operates at a distance from the world, the sense of touch brings us up close and personal, to the sensitivity of our fingertips, face, and skin.
Different light sources will draw out different texture qualities. Front lighting might emphasize sharp, bold, constrasty textures, as when bright sunlight comes over your shoulder and shines onto the metal, wood, and brick surface of a building. Side lighting creates fine shadows that accentuate detailed textures, as well as the surface qualities of an object’s three-dimensional form. Imagine the effect of the setting sun on a statue in a field of grass. Diffuse light helps us appreciate the subtle tones of smooth, silky textures, as evident in the foliage of trees under an overcast sky.
The sensations created by textures are almost endless. Sharp, silky, gritty, bumpy, scratchy. The memories and emotions they stir can be equally varied and subtle. Sometimes the feelings aroused cannot be easily verbalized. They exist beyond words. Not having yet developed language or even sophisticated visual abilities, infants rely on the sensation of touch to experience the world. They explore the environment with their hands and put everything into their mouths.
The texture of hair, skin, lips, a teddy bear, a baby blanket, bubbles, a faint prick of a pin. Just my mentioning these things probably creates within you a distinct sensation, memory, or feeling. This is the power of using texture in photography. It can activate very personal, deeply felt experiences.
People differ in whether they notice and in how they react to texture. Those with “kinesthetic” sensitivities – who are tuned to bodily sensations – respond more readily. It’s interesting to note that on the Rorschach test, the tendency to perceive textures in the inkblots is associated with needs concerning interpersonal attachment and contact comfort.
Texture means “touching.”
Technical note: Textures can change subtly or dramatically with different levels of sharpening and blur. I think the ideal degree of sharpening for the image above is somewhere in between the original larger view and the flickr-sharpened version above. It was hard for me to predict just how much flickr would sharpen this one.
See my touchy feely set for the kinds of texture shots that I like.
Feel free to post your own favorite texture shots!
* This image and essay are part of a book on Photographic Psychology that I’m writing within Flickr. Please see the set description.