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UID:2025-11-13-aaron-hertzmann@cail.columbia.edu
DTSTAMP:20260823T060633Z
DTSTART:20251113T203000Z
DTEND:20251113T213000Z
SUMMARY:Vision Seminar: Aaron Hertzmann - Why Do Pictures Work? Explanatio
 ns From Real-World Vision
LOCATION:CSB 480
DESCRIPTION:I outline possible answers to the long-standing question of wh
 y pictures work: why can people look at a painting or photograph\, and see
  a depicted subject\, rather than just marks on a page or lights on a disp
 lay? Observers with no prior experience with pictures can understand some 
 kinds of pictures\, indicating that picture understanding is not solely a 
 product of experience or culture.  I argues that picture perception can be
  explained as a product of several properties of real-world vision. First\
 , the fact that humans can understand certain real-world phenomena---refra
 ction\, reflection\, cast shadows---as simultaneously surface phenomena bu
 t also images of an underlying cause explains why we can see pictures as d
 epictions and not just markings.  Second\, the fact that viewers can under
 stand real-world scenes with unfamiliar combinations of objects explains o
 ur ability to understand many different styles of depiction. For example\,
  we can understand black-and-white photos of people because\, in real-worl
 d vision\, we could recognize a familiar person who had been painted gray.
  Third\, our robustness to visual defects and other difficult viewing cond
 itions explains our ability to understand styles of pictorial textures\, l
 ike paint strokes.  Extensions of these basic ideas can explain depiction 
 in many different visual styles\, including photographic tone reproduction
 \, line drawings\, silhouettes\, cartoons\, painterly styles\, and more. T
 he proposed models of picture understanding could significantly inform fut
 ure analysis of perceptual mechanisms\, picture aesthetics\, and the natur
 e of different styles of depiction.\n\nhttps://cail.columbia.edu/events/20
 25-11-13-aaron-hertzmann
URL:https://cail.columbia.edu/events/2025-11-13-aaron-hertzmann
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