You ever look at a profile sculpture of an animal, and it looks like it has two eyes because you can see the eye on the front side and the eye from the backside, shifted slightly to the side? I call this Flounder Eye Syndrome and it’s an annoying optical situation caused by the curvature of the ice. The sculpture above shows a little bit of this condition. Most people at the event won’t really notice it because they’re moving around the sculpture, but it really shows up in photos sometimes. It’s important because the eye of the subject is often one of the most important parts of the sculpture.

    So how do you deal with it? Well, at the tradeshow in Memphis in 2001, Mike Pizzuto did a presentation on photographing ice sculptures. His suggestion for this sort of thing was to detail the front of the sculpture, then take a picture, then detail the back of the sculpture. That’s a good idea, but the method won’t always work, especially if you’re trying to get a good photo of the sculpture in place, just before the event begins.

    I have three other suggestions. The first is to not detail the back at all, especially if the sculpture is to be placed against a wall or if the event guests won’t otherwise go behind the sculpture. You can put some detail or no detail, but avoid detailing sections that will mess up how the sculpture looks from the front. The second suggestion is to detail the back, but avoid hard, deep cuts that really catch the light and just concentrate on the overall forms. That way, it’s a complete sculpture, but you’re not creating so much distracting detail that will show through the front. The final suggestion is to detail the whole sculpture, but take care at what angle you take your picture from. If you’re able to move to the right position, you can often hide distracting backside detail behind front side detail.

    One more thing; if you’re photographing a sculpture of a flounder, well, then don’t even worry about it...