Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: Sanggay on March 23, 2013, 03:37:56 am

Title: Memorial Park.
Post by: Sanggay on March 23, 2013, 03:37:56 am
A little introduction.

This memorial park is surrounded by lush natural greenery, it successfully combines the best of oriental traditions and architecture with western planning and design to provide a serene final resting place for our departed loved ones but also others to pay their respects.

This is where my late dad rest. Shot these in the morning during Qing Ming. QingMing or Tomb Sweeping Day is a Chinese festival during which Chinese people to sweep and clean the tombs of their ancestors.
Title: Re: Memorial Park.
Post by: Sanggay on March 23, 2013, 03:40:04 am
I was struggling with composition. I had no idea what to shoot.
Title: Re: Memorial Park.
Post by: Tony Jay on March 23, 2013, 04:50:06 am
To me the first image seems to capture the place best.

Tony Jay
Title: Re: Memorial Park.
Post by: Chris Calohan on March 23, 2013, 08:53:32 am
I also have to agree with #1. The others seem more to lead the eye toward the sun and if this was Japanese, I could almost go there.
Title: Re: Memorial Park.
Post by: David Eckels on March 23, 2013, 03:34:36 pm
To me the first image seems to capture the place best.

Tony Jay
Agree. Cemeteries can be difficult, for a number of reasons. A little toning down of the sky or adding some clarity or contrast and raising of exposure and contrast in the monuments might help. FWIW.
Title: Re: Memorial Park.
Post by: Sanggay on March 24, 2013, 01:17:02 am
Thanks for your replies. I am hoping to get more tips when I return there next year.

Here are a few more.

#4. Those are more expensive "houses" on the wall.

#5. A man was seen working at the memorial park.

#6. A man was burning paper gifts to his departed loved one. I don't like the foreground in the original so I cropped it off to make a pano scene.



Title: Re: Memorial Park.
Post by: David Eckels on March 24, 2013, 03:11:01 pm
Oh, Sanggay, much better, in my view! My suggestion would be to "crisp" them up a little and the cropping on the lower wall in #6 is problematic, but I don't know what your constraints are with the original image. I think the composition with these is very much improved. Cemeteries have inherent gesture and implication, but it's up to you to provide contrast; if you haven't read Michael Reichmann's essay, on "Why What Works-Contrast, Gesture, and Implication (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/why_what_works.shtml)" it is definitely worth a read.
Title: Re: Memorial Park.
Post by: nemo295 on March 25, 2013, 03:09:44 pm
All of these are very nice, if somewhat underexposed. #1 is may favorite. The colors are so muted that I wondered what it would look like in monochrome, so I took the liberty of doing a quick and dirty conversion.
Title: Re: Memorial Park.
Post by: Sanggay on March 25, 2013, 11:35:59 pm
Oh, Sanggay, much better, in my view! My suggestion would be to "crisp" them up a little and the cropping on the lower wall in #6 is problematic, but I don't know what your constraints are with the original image. I think the composition with these is very much improved. Cemeteries have inherent gesture and implication, but it's up to you to provide contrast; if you haven't read Michael Reichmann's essay, on "Why What Works-Contrast, Gesture, and Implication (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/why_what_works.shtml)" it is definitely worth a read.

Thanks for the link. It was a good read.
All of these are very nice, if somewhat underexposed. #1 is may favorite. The colors are so muted that I
wondered what it would look like in monochrome, so I took the liberty of doing a quick and dirty conversion.

Your B&W looks good. In fact I had one converted too.

I have brightened the 1st 3 photos. I want the scenes to look a bit dim like taken early in the morning.