Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/08/08

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Photographic reaction time
From: Martin Howard <mvhoward@mac.com>
Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2003 15:06:13 -0700

LRZeitlin@aol.com wrote:

> My old experimental psychology textbooks give the simple reaction time 
> of most people as about 200 milliseconds.

This is largely irrelevant.  The way such experiments are conducted is 
by having someone wait for a stimulus, then respond when they detect it 
as quickly as they can.

In the real world, and certainly for most things that photographers 
point a camera towards, rhythm and timing is much more of a factor than 
reaction time.  Photographs catch the height of action by 
*anticipating* the rhythm of something and by *timing* their exposure 
to coincide with the photographically optimal moment.  Read Ted's 
comment on horse jumping, for example.

I don't know of any experiments, but I'm quite sure that top drummers 
are capable of keeping time much closer than 200 ms to the 
theoretically perfect beat -- which is not explained by such 
psychological experimental results because these ignore context.  As so 
much laboratory-based psychological experimentation does.

By the same token, your proposed experiment has very little to do with 
real world photography.  A better example would be someone who is 
bouncing a basket ball in a steady rhythm.  I'm willing to bet that 
with a little experience and knowing your camera gear (i.e., getting a 
feel for the shutter lag, thus being able to anticipate the release 
moment), most people would be able to catch the ball compressed on the 
ground in a pretty good number of shots on a 36 exposure roll.

M.

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Replies: Reply from "animal" <s.jessurun95@chello.nl> (Re: [Leica] Photographic reaction time(aural or visual stimuli))
Reply from Ted Grant <tedgrant@shaw.ca> (Re: [Leica] Photographic reaction time)