Referring to objects in an image

R
Posted By
ronviers
Sep 9, 2007
Views
263
Replies
4
Status
Closed
Hi,

If a reference is made to an item in an image, for example, the left front wheel, or the right paw, or the right hand, is there an accepted standard for which side it is?

Thanks,
Ron

Must-have mockup pack for every graphic designer 🔥🔥🔥

Easy-to-use drag-n-drop Photoshop scene creator with more than 2800 items.

D
Dave
Sep 9, 2007
On Sun, 09 Sep 2007 04:24:30 -0000, ""
wrote:

Hi,

If a reference is made to an item in an image, for example, the left front wheel, or the right paw, or the right hand, is there an accepted standard for which side it is?

Thanks,
Ron

Starboard side:-)

Dave
MR
Mike Russell
Sep 9, 2007
wrote in message
Hi,

If a reference is made to an item in an image, for example, the left front wheel, or the right paw, or the right hand, is there an accepted standard for which side it is?

Hi Ron,

Another darn good question that I bet everyone out there things they have the answer to, when in fact they might and they might not. For most images, and most objects, right and left refer to the right and left of the viewer of the image.

The three cases you mention are more interesting. If the image contains an animal, person, car, or other object with well-known right and left characteristics (wheels, paws, what have you), directions are relative to the owner of the parts in question. So right front paw would be the actual right, front paw of the animal in question, not the paw to the viewer’s right.

The right side of the photograph, though, is always relative to the viewer, unless the image contains such an overt indication of direction that it is hard to argue. An example of this would be a large arrow that says "this is the right side of the image". The arrow must point sideways to have any effect. If it points down or up, it may be considered nullified. It’s also meaningless if written on the back of the photograph. In all these cases right left orientation reverts to the viewer.

The right-left image orientation tends to belong to the viewer because the people in the image are not in a position to argue. This changes if you are facing an actual group of (live) people, who *are* in a position to argue. Consider the case of a photographer (playing the part of viewer) during a group shoot. It would be unbelievably boorish for him to tell everyone to look to the right, and then shout "No, MY right!".

No individual can stand up to a group of people and retain the right-left privilege. Even the most ruthless dictators can expect the vast majority of their audiences to look to his left, when told to look to the right. Great leaders, of course only give such an order when they are facing in the same direction as those receiving the order.

There is a special exception for groups of people who are posing as inanimate statues, or oblivious mimes. In these cases the viewer would retain sole ownership of right-left. None of this applies if the objects in question are animals or cars – since they cannot argue, the default right-left orientation remains with the viewer, though the objects and animals retain custody of the right-left orientation of their various parts.

It’s interesting that front and back, and up and down don’t have these problems. No one ever asks, is it the back paw the one behind the animal, or the one in the back of the picture? The back paw of an animal is not ambiguous, even if the paw is in the front of the image. Maybe this will change if and when we go to virtual reality rendering of our photographs. —
Mike Russell – www.curvemeister.com
S
Stan
Sep 9, 2007
On Sun, 09 Sep 2007 04:24:30 -0000, ""
wrote:

Hi,

If a reference is made to an item in an image, for example, the left front wheel, or the right paw, or the right hand, is there an accepted standard for which side it is?

Thanks,
Ron

Use the plug-in from Huffly Duffly InGrown Toe Neighbours Ltd. Ver 2098.903 Build 9874 is the best in the situation described. IMHO

Stan
R
ronviers
Sep 10, 2007
On Sep 9, 3:20 am, "Mike Russell" <
MOVE> wrote:
wrote in message

Hi,

If a reference is made to an item in an image, for example, the left front wheel, or the right paw, or the right hand, is there an accepted standard for which side it is?

Hi Ron,

Another darn good question that I bet everyone out there things they have the answer to, when in fact they might and they might not. For most images, and most objects, right and left refer to the right and left of the viewer of the image.

The three cases you mention are more interesting. If the image contains an animal, person, car, or other object with well-known right and left characteristics (wheels, paws, what have you), directions are relative to the owner of the parts in question. So right front paw would be the actual right, front paw of the animal in question, not the paw to the viewer’s right.

The right side of the photograph, though, is always relative to the viewer, unless the image contains such an overt indication of direction that it is hard to argue. An example of this would be a large arrow that says "this is the right side of the image". The arrow must point sideways to have any effect. If it points down or up, it may be considered nullified. It’s also meaningless if written on the back of the photograph. In all these cases right left orientation reverts to the viewer.

The right-left image orientation tends to belong to the viewer because the people in the image are not in a position to argue. This changes if you are facing an actual group of (live) people, who *are* in a position to argue. Consider the case of a photographer (playing the part of viewer) during a group shoot. It would be unbelievably boorish for him to tell everyone to look to the right, and then shout "No, MY right!".
No individual can stand up to a group of people and retain the right-left privilege. Even the most ruthless dictators can expect the vast majority of their audiences to look to his left, when told to look to the right. Great leaders, of course only give such an order when they are facing in the same direction as those receiving the order.

There is a special exception for groups of people who are posing as inanimate statues, or oblivious mimes. In these cases the viewer would retain sole ownership of right-left. None of this applies if the objects in question are animals or cars – since they cannot argue, the default right-left orientation remains with the viewer, though the objects and animals retain custody of the right-left orientation of their various parts.
It’s interesting that front and back, and up and down don’t have these problems. No one ever asks, is it the back paw the one behind the animal, or the one in the back of the picture? The back paw of an animal is not ambiguous, even if the paw is in the front of the image. Maybe this will change if and when we go to virtual reality rendering of our photographs. —
Mike Russell -www.curvemeister.com

Hi Mike,
Great answer – thank you – so even though there are accepted rules for interpreting the reference there remains a lot of room for ambiguity. Tutorials in PS and AI are one thing but I have been working with IK systems in Maya; being able to tumble the perspective makes it almost a necessity for the character to own the POV.

Thanks,
Ron

Master Retouching Hair

Learn how to rescue details, remove flyaways, add volume, and enhance the definition of hair in any photo. We break down every tool and technique in Photoshop to get picture-perfect hair, every time.

Related Discussion Topics

Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections