Interesting article in Popular Photography on a study that shows that men and women, in eye-tracking studies, look at photos differently.
Our first question: Do men and women physically see the world differently?
There is some evidence that the answer might be yes.
A report from the Online Journalism Review made a splash in March 2007 when it reported an eye-tracking study that looked at where viewers glanced on a given news page on the web. When presented with an image of a figure, females most often looked at the face, while males focused both on the face and the crotch.
Funny enough for salacious blog posts, but the results may have been onto some serious differences in behavior. In 2000, Life Sciences published a Japanese eye-tracking study that found a marked difference between the gaze of adult men and women. When presented with an image, women looked for longer periods of time at fewer places, while men’s eyes moved more frequently over the image.
[From Do Men and Women Take Different Photos? – – PopPhotoJanuary 2009]
In big generalities, men tend to think in terms of physical dimensions, technical aspects and composition, while women look for the story. Maybe that’s why my wife, though she has a little point-and-shoot and has less technical “skill,” takes better photos than I do.