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Thread: Composition photos for school

  1. #1
    Shambhala's Avatar
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    Composition photos for school

    These are the two I picked to hand in on Tues.

    Composition photos for school


    Composition photos for school

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    Re: Composition photos for school

    Just in case these one's are not up to par, I have a few back up's.. I just like the feel of these ones..It was a gloomy overcast day when our class went on this photo assignment. Thanks to everyone that gave me composition advice.. I think it helped a lot!

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    Re: Composition photos for school

    I like the second one, but not so keen on the sky in the first image. If you have the editing software, you might want to consider a new sky for #1 along the lines of this:

    Composition photos for school


    You may also want to tone down the roof of the birdhouse in #2 as it is very much competing will all the other elements in the photo. Think of your composition like a harmonious environment and then look at the roof and see the barking dog that lives next door.

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    Re: Composition photos for school

    Thanks Chris, I agree somewhat. I just don't know how to do any of the things you suggest.. LOL, I don't know how to edit photos like that. So basically I get to hand in what comes out of the camera other then "very basic" editing. We are still learning camera basics and have not got to the PS part yet ... I will post a few more and maybe they will be better..

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    Re: Composition photos for school

    Composition photos for school

    Composition photos for school

    Composition photos for school

    Maybe some of these will work, I need to hand in four. I can't take pictures at a different location, they have to be from the day our class went on a photoshoot.

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    Re: Composition photos for school

    Oh another note, they have to be basically SOOC.

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    Re: Composition photos for school

    I like the first (corner eaves) - wood grain is a favorite texture of mine. Mix that with signs of age and weathering, nice......I like the second, eyes to the bird then the board but then disappointed with the texture of the birdhouse, would have like to see the contrast of the screws against the grain of the roof. But for just point and shoot, without photoshop, I like it, saw a flow to it, interested me..... Not any way an expert just what I feel.....Maybe greyscale on the 2nd?

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    Re: Composition photos for school

    Thanks Henry.. I am REALLY new to photography.. I don't know what greyscale is ? These photos definitely won't be "prize winners" lol, they just have to show we "understand" basic composition. Right now we are in the very basic stages of learning, I think fine tuning pictures comes a little later. We started with how to turn our camera's on basically, moved up to DOF and now we are working on basic composition.. After that we have a more in depth composition class.. Photoshop is coming.. we are just not there yet. Thanks for your input though, I am making note of all these things to keep in mind for when I progress to that stage. I have my trusty notebook beside me.

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    Re: Composition photos for school

    I need to work on composition myself. I keep going back to the police stop...I like looking at that one, the red......

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    Re: Composition photos for school

    Well that's a good sign Henry, If you keep looking at it, Maybe I will hand that one in. I have a few more I can choose from if none of these one's get good reviews. The forum was a big help when I had to hand in my depth of field assignment. I am just discovering there is a lot to know about composition.. way more then I know at the moment. lol, But I like learning so it's all good. I liked the red in the police stop too, I don't think anyone in my class got a picture of the old police car it was only there for a second and no one in my class was around. So I might hand that one in just to make my pictures different from the others. We all have to hand in pictures from the same day and location that we took as a class, It was hard trying to get any decent pictures when twenty people were in the way all trying to take the same pictures..

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    Re: Composition photos for school

    PS If I did know how to PS I would like to PS the top right corner of the one with the police stop, a part of the car is sticking up, I think its a tiny bit distracting but nothing I can do about it at the moment.

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    Re: Composition photos for school

    The first one would be my pick, Shannon. In the second, like Henry, I find the birdhouse slightly disappointing.

    The police stop, and the flowers both have nice color, and contrast. Are you permitted to PP your photos? If so, you clone out that blade of grass above the right flower.

  13. #13
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    Re: Composition photos for school

    Thanks Abhi We can't PS our photo's yet. I can't wait to learn how to do things like clone etc. I don't actually like the flowers very much they are kind of dying.. But I was mostly trying to show some sort of composition with them. hmmmm ... I need four pictures, I will have to keep going through the ones I took that day to see if I can come up with four. Now that everyone has mentioned the birdhouse roof, I AGREE and it's all I can see in the picture now.. That's why it's good to get fresh eyes looking at your picture's, after you look at hundreds of pictures for a few hours they all start to look the same. lol

  14. #14
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    Re: Composition photos for school

    Maybe these flowers are a better composition.

    Composition photos for school

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    Re: Composition photos for school


    Hi Shannon,

    I have had a lot on lately so haven’t been on the site but Isee you are moving on with your studies.

    Some thoughts if I may.

    #1. I like the idea of this shot and (Henry mentionedgreyscale which is another way of saying black and white) and I agree with thatsky B & W would work well. My main issue is the closeness of the point ofthe roof to the top of the frame. I would like to see more room here. I do likethe angle of the shot and maybe this could have been accentuate more.

    #2. To me there is two points of interest here – the doveand the bird box. You shuold try to limit you compositions to have on centre ofinterest as I do not know which one you want me to concentrate on. Again I findthe bird too close to the top of the frame. You need to leave room for yoursubject to breath within the image.

    #3. I like the colour combination here and placement of thesign but again just too close to the top. I would have left as much room on topand you did on the side.

    #4. Again too tight on the sides. Three is a good number (oddnumbers of things work better than even) but you have chopped off bits on theside. Also the colour is wrong here. Maybe too much light. A polariser is goodfor shooting foliage as it cuts the glare and would have helped here.

    #5. Good angles here on the front of the car but in thiscase I would have cropped in tighter to get the light/mirror on the right handguard out of the image as I find it distracting and pulling my ye away from theshapes and light and shade of the front of the vehicle.

    Others will have different opinions and that is what is goodabout photography. I hope this helps and is put forward as just another pointof view for consideration.


    Well done Shannon and keep going.

  16. #16

    Re: Composition photos for school

    Maybe these flowers are a better composition.
    I agree Shannon. There are a couple of issues with focus and clipping of the reds but since this is about composition I like what you have done here.

    The first shot needs to comply with a rule (I cant believe I said that). Rule of thirds, the intersection of the roof and the l/h frame needs to be at the upper third line and the apex needs to be in alignment with the r/h third line. More sky would also help to balance the composition.

    The second shot does not work for me at all. It is confusing to the eye with too many points of interest competing.

    The third image I like a lot and you have already indicated that the dead space at to right needs sorting.

    Fourth shot is a good composition and lighting issues aside as Peter says the cropping is too tight.

    Fifth shot I feel should have been taken face on. Composition is always going to be difficult with complex shapes where the aspect perspective is askew. It can be done, but again you would have needed to give yourself more space within the frame.

    All this is simply a matter of practice. Personally I do not hunt for shots. I usually know what I want to shoot before I go out with the camera. This gives me time to think about how I want present the image and in my case how it will work with PP. However, I do realise that most people seem to wander around hoping that the money shot will present itself in a blaze of neon pointers. With this in mind I would always advise that if you see something that you think is worth capturing - walk away - think about how you would compose what you have seen and go back a little later. If the light is wrong or you cant get the aspect - go back another day. This is going to be difficult in a class situation and obviously for the some styles of photography it is impossible but it is worth bearing in mind for the type of shots you are doing at present.

  17. #17
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    Re: Composition photos for school

    I can't remember if you had a theme requirement for this assignment but if it's allowed consider adding a title to your image. Not necessarily printing on the image but perhaps placed on the back if a physical copy is used. This will help convey your meaning behind the composition.

  18. #18
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    Re: Composition photos for school

    Hi Shannon, In a situation like this where your location dictates what you can use for a subject, a successful photographer once said "If the subject isn't Great, make it BIG. If you can't make it big, make it RED." You have used this approach to your advantage!

    I don't know if these shots are cropped or not but either way, take a couple of sheets of paper and hold them to your screen for each full sized shot and play with the cropping. See what you like about each possibility. Don't forget to try croping at an angle. If you are having a hard time visualizing what might work for a subject while you are shooting, back up a little and get a bit more of the scene in the shot so that later you will have more croping options.

    I like the Chevrolet. I would crop a bit more to the right and down to get the emblem closer to the top left third of the image. That should give you stronger angle lines and add a bit of mistery to the reflection on the left fender.

    If there is more to the original of the Police Stop, I might be tempted to try changing the angle to lower the right side, giving the feeling of the nose dive a vehicle does when it stops hard. If the angle is less than 10° it might look like a mistake so you may want to tilt it about at that angle.

    What would you think if shot # 1 was upside down? What kind of mind tricks would it play? One of the most facinating shots I've seen was of a highly decorated ceiling posted updide down. Because it wasn't obviouis it was a ceiling, you spent time exploring the shot trying to make sense of it.

    Following the rules is important but sometimes it is worth the exploration to see what happens when you break a few!

  19. #19
    Shambhala's Avatar
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    Re: Composition photos for school

    Thanks Peter, Steve, Frank and John!! ALL excellent suggestions.. I agree with all of it!! I don't like having to hunt down pictures either.. and believe me when I say the subject matter we had to choose from that day was terrible! LOL Maybe that was a challenge by the teacher to see what we would come up with, Not to mention a horrible weather. As for cropping I totally agree some of them are cropped closer then I would have liked but because I can't PS things out of the pictures I had to crop them..the tight crop was a better choice then leaving something even more glaring in there. I will go back and see if I can work on some of your cropping suggestions before I hand them in, I might be able to leave a little more room.. Thanks for the help everyone!!! or I might just pick some different pictures, I was really trying to not use the squirrels and ducks that I know my whole class is going to use..

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