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© Lloyd Godman 

While the various aesthetic theories have their pros and cons, and we can turn it into a never ending science, it is valuable to know that people tend to read images in predictable ways, and understanding some simple principles allows us the knowledge to construct our images in a visually compelling way that gives them impact.

To understand visual principles we need to think in a less literal way and look at the subject from a more abstract perspective. So while the subject of this image is a wave - the first thing we see in the resulting image is the profile of a face.

The human brain makes sense of the visual chaos which is the world around us by distinguishing one object from another. Our survival depends upon it. We are able to read across intricate colour and tonal values, distinguish spatial relationships to make sense of the visual abstraction that is our vision. As we grow from a new born baby, we learn to interpret this information and distinguish one object from another and what their significance is to us.

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For instance; imagine a road where there is an intricate and abstract play of high light and shadow from a canopy of trees, perhaps the wind is blowing and the mottled pattern is also in motion. To cross the road safely, amongst this visual chaos, we need to understand more than the visual abstraction projected through our eyes - it is essential we understand what is a moving truck, a car or a bike etc. coming towards us - our brain needs to clearly warn us what these objects are and give them importance.

The moving floor at Chicago airport has a fantastic animated light display overhead and alongside it are announcement not to look at the light display because it can disorientate.

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