topic Neuroscience behind photography in General Discussion

Neuroscience behind photography

Ramsden — Sat, 09 May 2026 08:31:18 GMT

Hi folks

I'm currently reading a book by Daniel Levitin called 'Music as Medicine'. It's quite an academic book and delves into the way inner parts of the brain work together. Yesterday I started a chapter which references, and uses, another book (which I own) by Daniel Kahneman called 'Thinking Fast and Slow'.

Here he discusses how Kahneman's System 1 and 2 theory works with us, as humans, when engaging with music.

Briefly, System 1 makes rapid, intuitive decisions based on first impressions. System 2 is slower, more deliberate and analytical.

So, here's my thoughts and questions. Has anything been published similar to this work, but linked to photography? If so please let me (us) know.

In my photographic journey, I can relate to these ideas as I struggle with composition, camera settings and equipment.

While listening to music, sometimes it's a wall of sound, and other times I can hang on to every note. To draw a parallel to my photographic journey, I often just take my camera on a walk around the country lanes, and shoot plants, animals and landscapes (wall of sound)!

Other times, I may be on a specific theme, such as my next project of shooting old (19th Century) horse troughs in Yorkshire, using monochrome.

I've got several books on how to be a good photographer- emphasis on the 'How To'. But I would really like to know more about the neurological processes of linking what we see, the environment and through to the technical decisions we make with the equipment in our hands.

I hope this post isn't too 'left field' for the Canon community and as ever you'll come up with goods.

Ramsden

Re: Neuroscience behind photography

wq9nsc — Sat, 09 May 2026 11:43:09 GMT

Very interesting thoughts and I see your point! But I am not aware of any books relating that to photography, hopefully someone else has a reference.

However I find myself switching between those two "modes" at events. These attached images were all taken at the same "American rules football" game and when a play is taking place I am laser focused purely upon that play, "in the zone" as the athletes say. But between plays I am more relaxed and some of the more fun photos at these events are captured between those brief moments of singular mental focus when on field action is taking place.

In the first image, the defender has gone horizontal and manages to just get fingertips (and enough pressure) to send the runner out of bounds two frames later preventing a long yardage gain and perhaps a score. In the second image, a running back leaps over his own fallen blocker to elude being tackled by three defenders and ultimately goes in for a touchdown. In the third image, the official watches closely to perfectly mark where the runner is forced out of bounds on the play. In the fourth image, the runner has eluded the defender and has landed in a way to keep the play alive so that the ball ultimately is down only a few inches from the end zone allowing for an easy score on the ensuing play. All of these captures required extreme focus to anticipate and track the action while avoiding having the camera view blocked by players or officials.

These other four images were captured between on field action and could be described as the musings of a bored photographer awaiting for action to resume 🙂

The first is one of my favorites from the game when the young son of the athletic director wandered forward to prop himself against the end zone pylon to better watch the action downfield. In the second, a defensive coach is busy instructing two of his players while the offense is on the field. In the third, one of our big linemen is relaxing near the end of the game because his team is well ahead and his work for the night is nearly over. The fourth is a priest from another of the Catholic schools conversing with a fan between plays. None of these images are vital to the game but they all tell part of the story of the atmosphere of U.S. high school "Friday Night Lights" and are just fun for me to capture as part of the event.

So my ultimate advice is even when you are laser focused on a particular plan for the outing, let your mind run free at times because you may otherwise miss some of the best opportunities of the day. Although my PhD is in marketing, much of my research and most of my consulting was in enterprise risk management which grew out of my interest in quality management. In risk management, both the detail and the overall system are equally important so you have to simultaneously see the forest and the individual trees. I think the same often applies to photography.

These images were captured using a pair of Canon 1DX III bodies with EF 70-200 and EF 400 f2.8 lens using manual exposure with aperture wide open, shutter 1/1,000 and ISO set to auto to allow for the proper exposure triangle.

Rodger

EF 400 f2.8, ISO 12,800EF 400 f2.8, ISO 16,000EF 400 f2.8, ISO 20,000EF 400 f2.8, ISO 40,000EF 400 f2.8, ISO 20,000EF 400 f2.8, ISO 32,000EF 70-200 f2.8, ISO 32,000EF 70-200 f2.8, ISO 20,000

Re: Neuroscience behind photography

Ramsden — Sat, 09 May 2026 11:55:57 GMT

Hi Rodger

Thanks for your detailed response, and great photos. The process you describe underlines my question. I suppose that a neurologist might be able to map your mental processes that existentially link the players at speed, your manual focusing and the camera set up. At the moment, not all these processes come naturally to me. Like you - but a retired academic- I can't help asking one more question. But I expect someone will tell me to just go out and enjoy taking photos.

Thanks again

Ramsden

Re: Neuroscience behind photography

wq9nsc — Sat, 09 May 2026 12:26:25 GMT

Ramsden, ONE minor correction! I use manual exposure setup but I rely upon Canon's excellent AF system.

I am in awe of what sports photographers captured back in the day before auto focus!

Because I shoot with two and sometimes three camera bodies at an event, I don't deal with back button focus because I want to minimize finger placement issues when switching bodies. But I do have the AF button on the back configured to stop AF if I need to lock focus and recompose and I frequently use the handy array of AF stop buttons that are around the far end of Canon's "great white" telephoto lenses.

Rodger

Re: Neuroscience behind photography

Ramsden — Sat, 09 May 2026 12:55:02 GMT

Rodger

Thanks for the detail. Using two or three camera bodies sounds extremely sophisticated to me, but I can see your point at a football game.

Regards

Ramsden

Re: Neuroscience behind photography

Ramsden — Sat, 09 May 2026 18:55:37 GMT

Rodger

Your references to Back button focus reminded me of one of the processes that I haven't got to grips with, namely using the AF stop to good effect. Here's a screen shot of my current button set up which I've been playing around with today. So I'm just curious how you've got yours set up, and any tips on using the AF stop effectively. I think this is a good example of brain processes working together effectively.

Thanks

Ramsden

Re: Neuroscience behind photography

wq9nsc — Sat, 09 May 2026 19:46:00 GMT

I don't set up a lot with custom controls on my camera bodies. I am a traditionalist with the shutter release; half press to focus and full press to capture which works well for me.

I set up the AF on button as AF stop so that if I do want to lock focus and then recompose I can do so easily. I also set the Mfn button to switch between regular and custom memory setting; my reason for this is shooting sports I typically have the aperture wide open given the low light at night. But this results in very shallow depth of field so when I want to briefly catch a post-score celebration or other "group" action I have one of the custom memories set up for a narrower aperture but also slower shutter speed so that I can instantly have the correct setup for that scene and then immediately go back to my regular sports setup with only a button press.

I will always have the EF 70-200 f2.8 on one body, the other typically has a 300 or 400 f2.8 for night sports but for daytime or a really well illuminated venue I replace the long prime with the versatile 200-400 f4 with its built in instantly selectable 1.4X extender so with a flip of the lever it becomes a 280-560 f5.6 lens. This setup is lovely for soccer because with it and the 70-200 on the other body, I can cover the strikers coming at me at the goal while also getting good captures of the defending keep at the other end of the pitch without moving out of my favorite spot.

First image is the custom button setup I use with my 1DX III bodies, second is the EF 200-400 f4 with the extender engaged for 560mm, and the third is the 200-400 without the extender engaged. This lens isn't quite as sharp as the long primes, particularly with the 1.4X engaged, but it is lighter than the 400 f2.8 and very versatile in what it can cover from a single spot. The soccer photos were captured Wednesday night in conditions that changed rapidly multiple times from dark cloud cover to full sun and this is one of the reasons I like setting exposure to manual control of shutter and aperture while letting ISO float to complete the exposure triangle.

Experience and trial will help you find your own perfect setup so experiment and see what combo of control settings works best for you. And the more you work with a lens, the better you and the lens will perform as a team.

Rodger

Re: Neuroscience behind photography

Ramsden — Sat, 09 May 2026 19:56:13 GMT

Thanks Rodger

That's really useful. I've been getting to know my lenses more intimately in the last few weeks, and my confidence is increasing accordingly.

Ironically, I always preferred the shutter button mode!

Thanks

Ramsden

Re: Neuroscience behind photography

Ramsden — Sat, 09 May 2026 20:18:01 GMT

I should add that my EF 85MM 1:1.8 is giving me a lot of pleasure as I play with its focus/bokeh idiosyncratic behaviour!

Re: Neuroscience behind photography

wq9nsc — Sat, 09 May 2026 21:10:01 GMT

It is a lovely afternoon so you inspired me to pull out my EF 85 f1.8 which has been sitting in a case for a couple of years. It is a lens that will reward you after you grow accustomed to its personality and I always used it for low light/fast action so trying it in the daylight is a new experience for me!

One of the great things about digital is you can really learn the gear with no cost other than time since you are no longer paying for film and developing. But one major negative I have seen with a lot of new photographers getting started in the digital age is being over-reliant upon high speed drive instead of using thought and strategy since they aren't limited to a small number of exposures per roll.

When my daughter wanted to learn about photography, I started her with my old Canon EOS 650 film camera so that she would develop discipline instead of generating copious amounts of digital slop. My 1DX III bodies shoot 16 FPS in optical viewfinder mode and I leave them set at high speed drive for sports but the great majority of my game captures are single shots with a fair number of triple and never more than two or three longer sequences. I prefer precision timing to dealing with a ton of frames in post and it is easy to trigger single exposures with a proper touch of the shutter release and that timing challenge is a major part of what attracts me to sports photography.

To me, a truly huge advantage of digital is we can put in a lot of practice time and experimentation to really learn the equipment and that is the difference between casually using high tech and getting the most from it. I had a ham radio friend who spent many years building the same simple tube type regenerative receiver circuit over and over and each one performed a little better than its predecessor as he learned what worked and what didn't. That radio circuit, which dated back to the 1920s, is amazingly simple and yet properly built and used provides amazing performance for a simple single tube (aka valve in UK speak) circuit.

I think I am better with sports using the EF 85 f1.8 but now, thanks to your inspiration, at least I can honestly claim to having shot a flower with it 😄 EF 85 f1.8 wide open on a Canon EOS 5DS R body.

Rodger

Re: Neuroscience behind photography

Ramsden — Sat, 09 May 2026 21:22:02 GMT

Re: Neuroscience behind photography

Ramsden — Sun, 10 May 2026 16:40:42 GMT

Good afternoon Rodger

Your reference to how you 'trained' your daughter by using film, reminded me of my late father. Born in 1920, he was drafted into the Royal Artillery to fight in WW2. So when this photograph of was taken in 1942, he was still a young man. But what always puzzled me, was how he got a camera out to the rain forest. We're not sure whether this was Borneo or Malaysia.

But I will always remember his enthusiasm for photography, and we had a cellar in our house, which, apart from keeping food cold, served very well as our dark room. So I grew up with film, and thats probably why I still spend most of my time on One Shot.

I fully agree with your criticism of the 'youngsters' firing away with their fancy cameras, but I can't see the enjoyment in that process.

I've just been looking at your cameras. That's a very impressive set of equipment, but thankfully my EOS 90D meets my needs for country walks etc.

Take care

Ramsden