photography Photography is the visual art, art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It i ...

and

graphic arts A category of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of visual artistic expression, typically two-dimensional, i.e. produced on a flat surface.

a flopped image is a technical term for a static or moving image that is generated by a mirror-reversal of an original image across a vertical axis. This is opposed to a '' flipped image'', which means an image reversed across a horizontal axis. Flopping can be used to improve the subjective

aesthetic Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed t ...

appeal of the image in question.

Use in advertising

There are two main uses in advertising, one practical, and one subjective. On a practical level, images of cars are often flopped to ensure cars look appropriate for left-hand-drive or right-hand-drive markets. This allows the results of a single production shoot to be used across markets, allowing a cost saving. On a subjective level, the direction in which a person is looking or a car appears to be travelling may be regarded as important. When placing a picture on a page of text, it is usual for depictions of people to face into the text, rather than off the page; thus, when compositing a page, a picture may be flopped so it may be placed either side of a column of text.

Use in art

Cultural considerations come into play — a picture of a person eating with their left hand may be flopped for publication in a Muslim publication, due to the strong taboo against eating with the left hand in Muslim society. Similarly,

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...

took the trouble to etch some of his originals in mirror-reversed form so that when printed, people in the image would appear, correctly, as right-handed. An example of flopping is the use of Joseph Edward Southall's painting ''Fishermen and Boat'' as part of the art associated with

Kate Bush Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single " Wuthering Heights", becoming the first female ...

's album ''Aerial''. The picture is flopped, and the name "AERIAL" added to the boat.

Image flipping

A common movie

blooper A blooper is a short clip from a film or video production, usually a deleted scene, containing a mistake made by a member of the cast or crew. It also refers to an error made during a live radio or TV broadcast or news report, usually in terms ...

is a flopped image, usually and erroneously called " flipped images". Flopped images are common because they can be used to correct continuity errors between shots and are hard to see without extensive examination, whereas flipped images are very obvious. Examples of these can be found on several movie blooper sites. One of the most famous flopped images is this picture of

Billy the Kid Billy the Kid (born Henry McCarty; September 17 or November 23, 1859July 14, 1881), also known by the pseudonym William H. Bonney, was an outlaw and gunfighter of the American Old West, who killed eight men before he was shot and killed at t ...

carrying a Model 1873 Winchester rifle and a pistol belt with the pistol on his left. This led people to believe he was left-handed, but it was later revealed to be a flopped image due to the cartridge loading gate on the rifle being on the wrong side.

In moviemaking

In James Cameron's "Titanic" movie, the scenes of the ship at Southampton Pier were shot flopped, and later reversed.

"Oh, don't even talk to me about flopping", groans Winslet … "It made me laugh when I saw sailors with ' ENIL RATS ETIHW' written across their hats."''James Cameron's Titanic'' by Ed W. Marsh, 1997 (New York: HarperPerennial) p. 52

Notes

References

*Sorenson, Ray. *De Clercq, Rafael. {{small, (45.2 KiB) Artistic techniques Graphics Printmaking Photographic techniques