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Life through the viewfinder

We’ve already given an example of the camera seeing more, the friend seen across a crowded room. Human beings tend to see what they are interested in: cameras are not so selective. Sometimes the result is that your intended subject almost disappears into its surroundings – like your friend into the crowd. At other times the result may be that the intended subject is sitting in the middle of the frame but surrounded by acres of empty space.

The answer to these problems is learning to use the viewfinder. The ‘point and shoot’ way is to see the subject, aim the camera and press the button. The photographer’s way is to look through the viewfinder and see the whole image before composing the best shot. It is rather like the difference between looking through a window and looking at a picture. The view through a window has three dimensions and the eye tends to home in on whatever is most interesting. A picture is in two dimensions and it’s relatively easy to see it as a whole. If you’re not using a viewfinder at all, but looking at the screen on the back of a digital camera, then what you’re looking at is more picture-like already.