(such as pictures).

Color -
Line – horizontal (tranquility), vertical (stability), diagonal (action), curved (fluid)
Vectors - The Reading Path, how our eyes are being led through the picture
Viewing Angles and Perspective,
Background, Foreground -  focus of a picture also depends on the positioning of the objects.
Contrasts - make certain aspects of a picture stand out. Contrast is often to do with lighter and darker
colors. 
Texture – the surface quality of a visual element that appeals to our tactile senses or sense of touch
Salience - brings clarity in prominence and importance
Offers and Demands – what a visual element is trying to gauge attention
Modality - how realistic a picture is
Frame - what has been placed in the picture and where.

Sight – is a natural physiological process where our eyes capture or detect electromagnetic energy within the
visible range (light) interpret the visible light information as an image.
Perception/looking. Or seeing – on the other hand, is how we perceive all of the external visual elements that we
see in our surrounding. This is not natural since a plethora of factors influences how we see the world, how we
interpret everything in our line of sight. The culture we inhabit, our personal histories, our preferences, habits,
behavior, it all predispose us to see things in a way that is unique to us.
Looking vs Seeing
“Looking and seeing are as different as babbling and speaking” Bates Lowry, 1967.
Looking is a physical act; seeing is a mental process of perception. Seeing involves recognizing or connecting the
information the eyes take in with your previous knowledge and experiences in order to create meaning.
Example:
In psychology for instance, may client tayo na sexually abused orphan. Now in order to gauge what really
happened, we present some kind of vague visual stimuli or inkblots if familiar kayo with Rorchach. Now, looking at
the stimuli, you will just see some swash of paints and inks because it is what it is. You are just merely looking at it.
Now, when we say “seeing”, we draw into our personal history and experience to create meaning. The child might
interpret the vague stimuli as the child being coerced into the bed by the perpetrator. That is seeing, it is an active
mental process that involves our cognitive faculties.
Culture – it is a set of socially transmitted patterned ways of living which includes norms, knowledge, belief,
tradition, all crafted to fulfill a specific function.
Visual culture – a field of study set of ways of understanding these physical and social phenomena; an intellectual
discipline that allows us to make sense of the world by understanding visual elements and what it conveys.
Cultural studies - how to understand human and institutional relations and practices by dissecting everyday
notions of how the world works to understand the extent to which society is built on arbitrary divisions that serve
particular interests. It strives to understand and demonstrate the social, historical, economic and political
conditions that lead to the establishment of structures of power, and struggles for power, across society.