Previsualization and chimping Ansel Adams made what he considered to be his first visualized negative (Monolith) in 1927. He began publicizing the concept, formulating the Zone System with Fred Archer in 1939 and 1940 and creating techniques for achieving what he called visualization. The Negative was published in 1948. Minor White’s Zone System Manual was… [Read More]

The same reader who made the perspicacious comment about previsualization vs visualization also said: …in my view, planning to do experimentation is as much visualization as planning to do a specific shot. You always (usually) have an idea what you can get and want to see if what you “visualized” will actually happen…and/or…what conditions are… [Read More]

In a comment to the previous post, a reader said, “I think previsualization is a redundant word….visualization more than fulfills the thought.” I agree. Ansel called it just “visualization”, and that ought to be good enough, right? Still, I keep using the redundant form. I do it consciously, in spite of an admittedly prissy attitude… [Read More]

Previsualization assumes follow-through. If you have an image in your mind when you release the shutter, and in processing the image you change your mind and take it somewhere else, that has to count as a failed previsualization. It may not be a failure as a photograph, however. There are two reasons why you might… [Read More]