Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Digital Cameras & Shooting Techniques => Topic started by: BernardLanguillier on September 08, 2005, 08:54:51 am
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Not a pro, but I'll give it a try nonetheless...
An interesting crop for sure. I guess that it is close to working for me, but I would perhaps have prefered the boat to be centered left/right, and a tiny bit lower in the frame. It feels stuck in the upper corner of the image somehow.
Because of the very strong vertical component of the image, I would have prefered the reflexion to be converging a little bit less perhaps. Getting a tiny bit lower might make the image more powerful.
A more contrasty image might work also and would give more punch to the reflections. The current approach gives a quiet end of the day feeling that is pleasant though, but the lack of contrast does perhaps induce a slight feel of lack of sharpness.
Cheers,
Bernard
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Have you thought about cropping the image so you view only the reflection? The crop would then be must below the red buoy (and perhaps a bit on the right side). It would then habe a very abstract, but I think interesting appearance.
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OK when you guys say straighten the horizon, I take that to mean the invisible horizon where the water meets the boat, correct?
Also, getting more of the boat into the picture would requeire that I be much higer than I was, like on the top of another boat, in order to get both the mast and reflection in the picture.
Cropping, or retaking the picture if possible, to take out the truncated mast is a GREAT idea--I see that now.
I'll have more questions later, but I have to meet my out of town dad for dinner. See you all soon.
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I second straightening the horizon, and tweaking the white balance would make the sky a lot less dirty-looking. Or better yet, convert to B&W; that would accentuate the "abstractness" of the image. Then I'd crop the boat just above "Drifter" to get rid of all the clutter on the decks and focus on the reflection.
That was pretty much my first thought about the crop. Wasn't too sure about the B&W conversion but I've just had play with it and it looks rather nice. :)
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I could give you things to do to make your image more to my liking, but I wonder if you took the image to please me?
I know I have an uncommon approach to critiques, but I like to know what the artist was trying to communicate--what they were hoping to say with the image. Then I can provide comments as how how to make the image say THAT more (from my perspective).
So if you know what you were trying to say with this one, let us know.
I wasn't trying to say anything really. I thought the lighting and reflection was intersting in a serene/isolated sort of manner. It was jsut something I thought people would enjoy seeing and drawing their own ideas from it. Is that a wrong approach to photography?
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Again, please be critical. Your professional evaluation helps me very much. Nothing you say is taken personally.
http://www.idlethoughtsandchaos.com/photo/ (http://www.idlethoughtsandchaos.com/photo/)
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Very nice light, great reflection, good exposure, plenty of visual interest.
On the other hand, the horizon slants down to the left, which is visually disturbing. The clutter and bisected boat in the upper right corner are distracting. Single stray reflection right lower corner also a distraction. And (just my opinion) the dirty-looking sky doesn't really add much. Might be stronger if you cropped a bit tighter, losing some sky and some of the right hand side.
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I agree with some of the other suggestions: Straighten the horizon and crop the right edge (center the boat horizontally).
But then I would do something like the "rule of thirds" vertically: crop the top so that the name of the boat is about one third of the way from the top. This makes it clearer that the reflections are the focus of the image and not the truncated masts. I am not a "rule-of-thirds" junkie, but sometimes it can strengthen an image.
Just my 2 farthings.
Eric
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An interesting image and I think worth the effort. As others, I would level the boat, crop the boat somewhere around the top of the first deck house roof. In the reflection, on the right side toward the bottom there is a reflection of something else there. It might go away if you crop to center the boat left to right.
I think you can crop the upper part of the boat off because there is nothing there that is required to identify this as a boat. I also see the main subject as the boat's reflection. The boat at the top merely sets the scene. I think that is why the boat name in the upper third works. The main focus is in the reflection which deserves and needs more size than the boat. Cropping to center the boat gives equal value and weight to ech side of the boat, which is proper since neither dide is more important than the other and the boat is static.
Nice shot.
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I could give you things to do to make your image more to my liking, but I wonder if you took the image to please me?
I know I have an uncommon approach to critiques, but I like to know what the artist was trying to communicate--what they were hoping to say with the image. Then I can provide comments as how how to make the image say THAT more (from my perspective).
So if you know what you were trying to say with this one, let us know.
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I second straightening the horizon, and tweaking the white balance would make the sky a lot less dirty-looking. Or better yet, convert to B&W; that would accentuate the "abstractness" of the image. Then I'd crop the boat just above "Drifter" to get rid of all the clutter on the decks and focus on the reflection.
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OK when you guys say straighten the horizon, I take that to mean the invisible horizon where the water meets the boat, correct?
Also, getting more of the boat into the picture would requeire that I be much higer than I was, like on the top of another boat, in order to get both the mast and reflection in the picture.
Cropping, or retaking the picture if possible, to take out the truncated mast is a GREAT idea--I see that now.
I'll have more questions later, but I have to meet my out of town dad for dinner. See you all soon.
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send me your email address and I'll send you an image for concideration.
My email is
()
My servers are closed to the outside so I'll have to sent it directly to you.
bob
Bob,
I'm an amatuer. I don't think you would want me to try and evaluate a photograph, unless there is a reason you would want me too at this level of my skill.
Hehe,
I meant for you to email me YOUR email address as I put your pix through a quick photoshop session and was going to send it back to you for your review
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OK so one of the things I am hearing is that this is a good image to break the rules with, bye centering the boat and moving the cabin to a higer level which would take out the mast? That makes perfect sense to me if correct.
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send me your email address and I'll send you an image for concideration.
My email is
bobmccarthy@isegames.com
My servers are closed to the outside so I'll have to sent it directly to you.
bob
Bob,
I'm an amatuer. I don't think you would want me to try and evaluate a photograph, unless there is a reason you would want me too at this level of my skill.
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The reflections are great but the truncation of ther yacht's mast is disturbing.
The reflection and the boat take up two halves of the image, Not good.
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send me your email address and I'll send you an image for concideration.
My email is
bobmccarthy@isegames.com
My servers are closed to the outside so I'll have to sent it directly to you.
bob
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I could give you things to do to make your image more to my liking, but I wonder if you took the image to please me?
I know I have an uncommon approach to critiques, but I like to know what the artist was trying to communicate--what they were hoping to say with the image. Then I can provide comments as how how to make the image say THAT more (from my perspective).
So if you know what you were trying to say with this one, let us know.
-
OK when you guys say straighten the horizon, I take that to mean the invisible horizon where the water meets the boat, correct?
Also, getting more of the boat into the picture would requeire that I be much higer than I was, like on the top of another boat, in order to get both the mast and reflection in the picture.
Cropping, or retaking the picture if possible, to take out the truncated mast is a GREAT idea--I see that now.
I'll have more questions later, but I have to meet my out of town dad for dinner. See you all soon.
-
send me your email address and I'll send you an image for concideration.
My email is
()
My servers are closed to the outside so I'll have to sent it directly to you.
bob
Bob,
I'm an amatuer. I don't think you would want me to try and evaluate a photograph, unless there is a reason you would want me too at this level of my skill.
Hehe,
I meant for you to email me YOUR email address as I put your pix through a quick photoshop session and was going to send it back to you for your review
bob sure, it's forums@idlethoughtsandchaos.com
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When i first viewed the image, my eye was searching all over the place, with the whole lot of clutter and distractions in the top third of the image, which also was bland in colour. I found this uninteresting and unappealing. The bottom 2/3rds of the image - the reflection - however, I found to be dynamic and representative of the contrasts of both stillness and movement when on the ocean. This is indicated by the wave like reflections of the masts on the water. The abstract shapes are so fluid and intersting. I felt a sense of serenity, yet an awareness of the power of the waves on the ocean, when so much movement can result even with the smallest of seas.
I would centre the image around the red fender and crop out the right accordingly. I would also crop along just below the door heads on the lower deck to remove the clutter on the upper boat.
I wouldn't level the water...., because when the right side is cropped out, only a small amount of water is left, which then does not give any indication that the water line is not horizontal. The boat which is not horizontal, and without the reference of the extended water line, helps create the movement in the image, and is reminiscent of the rocking and swaying inherent on boats - even when moored. I think that making the boat horizontal would make the image more static and solid, rather than creating the feel of being on the sea.
Julie
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hey all, please forgive me for attempting a few changes, really don't have much to do today haha...but a bit of a different take to the original,
what do you think?
(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y280/Markisold/final.jpg)
before and after.
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hey all, please forgive me for attempting a few changes, really don't have much to do today haha...but a bit of a different take to the original,
what do you think?
(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y280/Markisold/final.jpg)
before and after.
I think waht you did was exactly waht most people were agreeing to change, except a few would also crop more off of the top of the pilot house too. Thanks for posting that. very helpful.
The main problem here was that I do not have enough zoom with the F828 to get closer, thus the cropping.
The Sony F828 has been updated with a bigger sensor, but it is still limited by its zoom, which has decreased to 120mm equivalent, instead of 200, and it's still a fixed lens.
I'll bet Sony could make a nice 20D type camera if they put their minds to it.
Also, it still has that LCD through teh lens instead of real TTLs. I'm really starting to hate that aspect of the F828 too.
The new Sony is called the DSC-R1. It also doesn't swivel any more.
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um...i must admit, i didn't read through all the replys...sorry!!!
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um...i must admit, i didn't read through all the replys...sorry!!!
No reason to be sorry. You pretty much nailed what everone else was saying so that makes it a sort of standard set of objections.
I like what you did, except I think I like the color of the water in the original.
I'll probably work on it a little more, and then have it printed at 12x18. Then I'll use a 10 x 16 matting to crop wiithout losing any pixel information.
Thanks for your effort. I apprecaite that.
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dwdallam, unfortunately I can't hyperlink photos because of some arcane security restrictions imposed by my ISP, but I can describe one more tweak to the "after" image you can look at very easily by positioning the pictures in your web browser accordingly: crop the top of the photograph down to the level of the first door and window above the word "Drifter". When you do this, there is just enough material for people to see it is a boat, but the eyes are drawn immediately into the center of interest, which is really its main strength - that beautiful, flowing abstraction of the boat in the water.
I tend to prefer the colour balance in the "after" image - I find the "before" image a trifle muddy, but this is one of those pictures where the hue can be somewhat flexible while achieving essentially the same effect.
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dwdallam, unfortunately I can't hyperlink photos because of some arcane security restrictions imposed by my ISP, but I can describe one more tweak to the "after" image you can look at very easily by positioning the pictures in your web browser accordingly: crop the top of the photograph down to the level of the first door and window above the word "Drifter". When you do this, there is just enough material for people to see it is a boat, but the eyes are drawn immediately into the center of interest, which is really its main strength - that beautiful, flowing abstraction of the boat in the water.
I tend to prefer the colour balance in the "after" image - I find the "before" image a trifle muddy, but this is one of those pictures where the hue can be somewhat flexible while achieving essentially the same effect.
I pretty did that exact thing you mention last night. Thanks for the comments.