I don't have a picture available, but I can answer some of the questions.
If you have a magnified optic, the front sight tower will be invisible. You won't see it. The fact that it is there will lead to some marginal loss in clarity and brightness, but unless you do a side by side comparison under ideal conditions, I doubt you'd notice it. If I was setting up a rifle to be a precision instrument, I'd use flip-ups, but in any other role I prefer a fixed front sight. YMMV, certainly lots of people use flip-up fronts.
If you have a red dot, you will see the front sight tower out there, but you will rapidly learn to ignore it. It does not get in the way. Look at the target, both eyes open, superimpose the dot on the target, and press the trigger. The irons and the scope body will just sorta grey out (like the rear of a peep sight does). As was said above, don't trust camera images too far on this one. Perception is what is more important.
Another example of perception being more important than reality would be an Occluded Eye Gunsight. If you took a picture of an OEG, you'd wonder how you could function with half of your vision blocked by a huge dark circle with a red dot in the center. However, if you actually use an OEG (properly), you'd find that you see just fine and it works like a low-tech red-dot. In fact, lots of people use their ACOGs in CQB situations in this manner (if the range closes, you flip the front cover down, shoot both eyes open, and it is very similar to having a red dot).
if you're concerned about the front sight cluttering up your FOV, go for lower 1/3rd cowitness, as Zerodefect says.
Mike
