How photographers look at images

[Basil]

This was the result of an experiment done by Canon a few years back. They had three people look at the same image (I believe it was a fine art image of a cowboy), A non-photographer, a photography student, and a pro photographer. They use eye-tracking technology to show the difference in their eye movements. It illustrated how obsessed some photographers are about fine details in a picture, whereas the average person looks at far fewer parts of the image with much less intensity.

 

[GregW]

Only three people? What if the pro happened to be obsessive compulsive?

 

[DrEntropy]

I'd like to know what was so durn'd interesting that they were concentrating on in the upper middle of the "pro" scan!

 

[Basil]

I'd like to know what was so durn'd interesting that they were concentrating on in the upper middle of the "pro" scan!

I believe this was the image they looked at. The pro probably looking at details in the upper torso/ head and eyes. (This obviously a low res version)

 

[DrEntropy]

The face. No doubt.

 

[DrEntropy]

And three-point (triangle) composition. Head and feet positioning. Background detail was likely the secondary study. It IS a strong composition.