• Latest
    • News
    • Exhibitions & Events
      • New
      • Past
    • History
    • 55 Westgate Road
    • About Us
    • North of England Art Club
  • Buy Art
    • Featured Artist
  • Courses
    • New Year 2022
    • Gift Vouchers
    • Mailing List
  • Craftshop
    • Shop
    • FAQ
  • details.co.uk
  • Frameshop
  • Spaces
    • Room Hire
    • Studio Hire
    • Venue Hire
  • Jazz Cafe
  • Black Swan
Newcastle Arts CentreNewcastle Arts Centre
  • Latest
    • News
    • Exhibitions & Events
      • New
      • Past
    • History
    • 55 Westgate Road
    • About Us
    • North of England Art Club
  • Buy Art
    • Featured Artist
  • Courses
    • New Year 2022
    • Gift Vouchers
    • Mailing List
  • Craftshop
    • Shop
    • FAQ
  • details.co.uk
  • Frameshop
  • Spaces
    • Room Hire
    • Studio Hire
    • Venue Hire
  • Jazz Cafe
  • Black Swan

The camera as an eye?

May 1, 2020 Posted by Newcastle Arts Centre News

The camera raises questions about how we see the world and the development of our visual understanding.  Artists, Engineers, Architects and Designers all interpret the world as rectilinear while it is spherical. The rectilinear world is something we construct to define form and space, so much so that our brains are educated to interpret vision as rectilinear information. Think about how we need the invention of perspective to understand a view.

The camera is a box with a lens to focus light inside as an image on a flat plane, the eye is spherical inside and out, yet we need straight horizontal and vertical lines for our visual perception to work even though we live on a sphere.

Lens designers produce camera lenses that confirm to the desire for the rectilinear, plus an even distribution of sharpness and light across the image plain while our brain produces a moving image in stereo and in compliance with our perception of the world by selectively compiling our view.

Our eyes can take in a field of view of around 120 degrees but we concentrate our an area of sharp focus of within 50 degrees and designers have chosen that as the view for the ‘standard ‘ camera lens. A photographer would regard 90 degrees as ‘Wideangle’ and describe a view of narrower than 20 degrees as long focus or ‘telephoto’.  

A simple spherical lens projecting an image on to a flat plain will produce an image that looks distorted but is it much different to that which appears in our eye?

Here I show snaps of Cullercoats and North Shields taken with an old 16mm ‘semi fisheye’ and compare with images taken with a modern fully ‘corrected’ 20 mm wideangle.

I’m still thinking about this ! ….

Mike Tilley

16 mm

16 mm

20 mm

75 mm

Both the above of North Shield Fish Quay are from the same viewpoint. The 1st with a 16 mm and second  a 75mm focal length equivalent on 35mm full frame.

1 Comment

Leave your reply.
  • Mixer tap pullout hose gold
    · Reply

    August 1, 2021 at 6:00 AM

    fantastic as well as fantastic blog site. I truly intend
    to thank you, for providing us better information.

Leave a Reply Cancel Reply

Contact Us

Please specify which page this is in relation to!

Send Message

CONTACT INFO

  • Newcastle Arts Centre
  • 67 Westgate Road, NE1 1SG
  • 0191 261 5618
  • admin@newcastle-arts-centre.co.uk

LINKS

Jobs
Contact Us
Location and Site Map
Mailing List

OPENING HOURS

OPEN: Monday - Sat./ 9:30-17:00 hrs