This was, for me, a more revealing lesson than those that preceded it. I learned a different perspective on photography than those I had previously been exposed to. You see, I worked for over a decade in a newsroom, with news photographers and photo editors. Their view of composition was very different from that presented by Ron. For them, the worst sin was the set-up shot. All the pictures on this page fall into that category. "Too arty," I can hear the photogs grumble, "Where's the action?" No action, Skip and Arnold, just nice feature shots for the local page — and it's not fashion photography.
Nonetheless, I think the editors would be happy that I learned a little bit about cropping from them. None of the photos on this page shows the complete frame as taken by the camera. Even my photographer friend from years ago would mask off portions of the picture before making the final exposure. So perhaps it's not completely koshruth, but at least I'm not serving ham at the bar-mitzvah.
It's also not perfect. Except for Spring Flow, each of them could do with a bit of digital dark-grooming, and even that one could use a little Curve adjustment to punch up the greens. Comments are welcomed, encouraged even. From looking at other people's work in the class, I suspect there are professional (or very experienced) photographers in this class. What would you have done to improve these photos? What am I missing here? How can I improve?
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The Ent Comes Over the Mountain This is an attempt at framing. I liked the shape of the bare tree and the contrast it made with the overcast sky. The sloping horizon line adds to the effect, I think. Yes, it would have been better if the power pole and the flag weren't there. I called the power company, told them the pole and their wires were fouling up the composition of my photo, and asked them to remove them temporarily. They weren't amused. |
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Spring Flow I think this is a very interesting picture, primarily because of the ambiguity of scale. From the visual cues in the picture, it's difficult to tell whether the top is 10 feet from the bottom or 10 inches. In the upper right, the sapling and the branch form a corner with the action of the running water from the center, then slightly right and finally exiting stage left front. The shades of green provide a (subtle) contrast to the essential black and white nature of the photo. |
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The Wall That Jack Built Yeah, this is probably too tall for this format. But this is a course in Digital Photography, not Exhibition Management. I'll figure the presentation problem out another time. (I really want to have at least one lesson not submitted at the last minute.) But the question remains: Why this picture for this lesson? One of the elements of composition Ron discussed was the use of line to emphasize the focus of the photo. Another element was the use of thirds. Here we have the lines of the wood pointing to the flowers, which begin in the right third of the photo and progress to the center ("Into the picture," I believe Ron said.). Finally, there was the suggestion that landscape is not the only way to take a photo. An additional element which I feel gives the photo interest is the contrast of colors. On the right we have basically washed-out grey stones, punctuated by foliage and blossoms all of which could use a little saturation themselves. The photo is centered by the very saturated wood, itself moving into the picture from the left. On the left we have the dark tiles. With a little "Photoshop magic," I would have removed the non-black tiles and replaced them with black tiling, as seen in the wall and the foreground. The door in the distance would also "disappear." But this isn't a class in Photoshopping Images, either. |
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The Last Homely House My favorite, but, after all, I love this house. Composition elements: the focal point is the door, placed in the left third of the photo and slight below dead center, with the rhododendron branches outlined in snow pointing to it. The effect of the night flash highlighting the falling snow provides a depth which I cannot imagine getting in any other way. What would I change? Well, for sure I would eliminate the glare off the nine-one-one marker on the left pillar. A little clone stamp, possibly in saturation mode ... Also the mysterious orange light showing through the rhodos would go, as would the footsteps through the snow. |
