Composition question

Ichinichi said:

Ichinichi wrote:

Ichinichi said:

D Cox wrote:

Another point about the original photo is that the people seem to be positioned on the grid as well as the statues. As though they were models that had been carefully placed.

The shadow is the main subject, if any.

Do you know the work of Moholy-Nagy? Some of his photos are somewhat similar.

As for the other photos, yes, a bit of straightening up would help.

It would be fun to have the tower of Pisa straight and all the other buildings leaning.

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Hmm, your post here "feels" closer to the impression I get too. People as statues, intentionally placed; sort of goes back to an architect's mock up - not too crowded, not to sparse, just enough activity but not enough to draw away from the lines of the space (maybe?).

A quick google of Moholy-Nagy's work reveals a neat use of regular patterns in shadow (e.g. grids). So very cool!

What software would you guys recommend? None of these photos are edited (as you can tell) and I really would like to straighten them up.

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uhligfd said:

uhligfd wrote:

So far I am not aware of anybody mentioning the odd exposure combination: f/2, 1/4000 sec and ISO 400.

I wonder why f/2? For background blur maybe, I am thinking, but then everything in the picture is about equally far away, there is really no background to blur. Odd. Now ISO 100 and f/4 would have resulted in around 1/250 sec exposure which would have frozen all the walkers into place, too. What was the purpose for that oddball exposure combination, I wonder.

I must also wonder what this lens could do at f/4 and the sensor at ISO 100. Oh the possibilities to learn beyond snapshooting!

Good luck learning the trade, sir.

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SonyForNow said:

SonyForNow wrote:

I think it's an interesting photo initially, but after a while there is no central subject per se. Nothing really stands out.

The stair and walls near the center seem to be pushed up from underneath, giving a 3 dimensional aspect to it. The triangle shadow lines in the upper left add to that feeling.

The viewpoint is tilted or diagonal (not too much though) - compared to the shadow lines on the floor going to the columns at the top of the picture. I don't think the 3D aspect would have been as noticeable if parallel to the edges of the frame.

It surprises me when I take a picture and expect ordinary, but viewing later shows something I didn't see. Well done.

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Dennis said:

Dennis wrote:

It's a really weird picture. The curved shadows fight with the straight lines, the dark colors high up recede while the bright lower floor advances, and as someone else said, the balance feels off. It reminds me of an Escher in the way that the downstairs doesn't seem any lower than the upstairs. All in all, I find it disconcerting, not satifying, but at least interesting, which is after all the purpose of a photo (to be interesting to look at). I don't think color does anything for the composition - it might be interesting to try b&w for that reason.

- Dennis

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Bart Hickman said:

Bart Hickman wrote:

I think the humans scattered around the statues gives it an interesting character. The viewers eye jumps from human to statue to human to...around and around. There aren't too many distractions leading my eye out of the scene.

The balance is okay--a bit heavy on the right and sparse on the left. Maybe if you panned slightly rightward to even out the statues and then work the scene with different distributions of people and possibly different focal lengths. Eventually you'd get something perfectly balanced.

The colors of the trees also make it a bit lop-sided. Perhaps a black and white version might work too.

Bart

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D Cox said:

D Cox wrote:

D Cox said:

Ichinichi wrote:

D Cox said:

D Cox wrote:

Another point about the original photo is that the people seem to be positioned on the grid as well as the statues. As though they were models that had been carefully placed.

The shadow is the main subject, if any.

Do you know the work of Moholy-Nagy? Some of his photos are somewhat similar.

As for the other photos, yes, a bit of straightening up would help.

It would be fun to have the tower of Pisa straight and all the other buildings leaning.

Click to expand...

Hmm, your post here "feels" closer to the impression I get too. People as statues, intentionally placed; sort of goes back to an architect's mock up - not too crowded, not to sparse, just enough activity but not enough to draw away from the lines of the space (maybe?).

A quick google of Moholy-Nagy's work reveals a neat use of regular patterns in shadow (e.g. grids). So very cool!

What software would you guys recommend? None of these photos are edited (as you can tell) and I really would like to straighten them up.

Click to expand...

Photoshop Elements is pretty good. It has a "Correct Camera Distortion" filter which corrects vertical perspective tilt.

Often You just have a tilt to the right or left. This can be fixed in the Crop tool. Drag your crop box so that the right side is at the centre of the picture. Rotate it by dragging near a corner to line the side up with a vertical line in a building. Then expend the crop rectangle to the edges of the picture and hit Return.

Many people like Lightroom, which has similar features.

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absentaneous said:

absentaneous wrote:

what you see is "the rule of thirds" in action.

if you didn't know the rule of thirds then it means you have a natural talent for composition. a lot of people need to learn it but some can compose perfect compositions without ever learning any theory.

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boardsy said:

boardsy wrote:

Reminds me of this famous shot from Resnais' classic film, beautiful but with an unsolvable riddle of a plot and an unsettling atmosphere, Last Year in Marienbad:

Note the lack of shadows from the trees! But as rogatsby pointed out, who you were unnecessarily rude to, yours doesn't quite live up to its intiguing promise. I'd try a crop without the unnecessary background/top pillars & windows, to emphasize the unsettling Escher effects in the centre, and a higher contrast black & white, to emphasize the white statues/dark shadows & people (clothing) contrast and remove unnecessary colour.

Alan

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Ichinichi said:

Ichinichi wrote:

Ichinichi said:

boardsy wrote:

Reminds me of this famous shot from Resnais' classic film, beautiful but with an unsolvable riddle of a plot and an unsettling atmosphere, Last Year in Marienbad:

Note the lack of shadows from the trees! But as rogatsby pointed out, who you were unnecessarily rude to, yours doesn't quite live up to its intiguing promise. I'd try a crop without the unnecessary background/top pillars & windows, to emphasize the unsettling Escher effects in the centre, and a higher contrast black & white, to emphasize the white statues/dark shadows & people (clothing) contrast and remove unnecessary colour.

Alan

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This photo is quite disturbing; the lack of shadows being the culprit and everyone standing; not walking or talking. Standing.

I'll definitely try out black and white (this is the third independent suggestion).

I'll leave rogatsby out of this; he was rude, he misread the photo and the original post, and he was not helpful in the slightest.

Thank you for your constructive comments. Nothing non-human has a shadow. How is that possible without post-editing?

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boardsy said:

boardsy wrote:

boardsy said:

Ichinichi wrote:

boardsy said:

boardsy wrote:

Reminds me of this famous shot from Resnais' classic film, beautiful but with an unsolvable riddle of a plot and an unsettling atmosphere, Last Year in Marienbad:

Note the lack of shadows from the trees! But as rogatsby pointed out, who you were unnecessarily rude to, yours doesn't quite live up to its intiguing promise. I'd try a crop without the unnecessary background/top pillars & windows, to emphasize the unsettling Escher effects in the centre, and a higher contrast black & white, to emphasize the white statues/dark shadows & people (clothing) contrast and remove unnecessary colour.

Alan

Click to expand...

This photo is quite disturbing; the lack of shadows being the culprit and everyone standing; not walking or talking. Standing.

I'll definitely try out black and white (this is the third independent suggestion).

I'll leave rogatsby out of this; he was rude, he misread the photo and the original post, and he was not helpful in the slightest.

Thank you for your constructive comments. Nothing non-human has a shadow. How is that possible without post-editing?

Click to expand...

Can't remember now if it was a film still, or a posed photo for the poster/promo - the shadows were possibly painted on the ground on a cloudy no-shadow day (and hence the standing requirement!), or if a photo composed from two shots in the lab the traditional way.

You didn't actually leave rogatsby out here So here's my reading of the exchange: he pointed out a possible flaw (distortion which it turned out wasn't really there) and then signed off with "nice try" - which may well have been a well-intentioned compliment - but you took that badly, escalated the issue into a verbal fight, and might consider an apology. Anyhow it takes two to tango.

Good luck with pp'ing your shot - GIMP is a good free photoshop-esque JPG processing package, RawTherapee is a good free RAW option. there's plenty of good options if you pay.

Alan

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Ichinichi said:

Ichinichi wrote:

I snapped this quick image out of an upper story internal window at the Louvre and upon review it really appealed to me; something about the placement or spacing of statues, people and foliage? Or the architecture? or lines? ????

Can someone explain? Or is it just appealing to me?

Edit: Unprocessed JPEG from Canon FD 24mm f/2 on Sony NEX 5N

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Dennis said:

Dennis wrote:

It's a really weird picture. The curved shadows fight with the straight lines, the dark colors high up recede while the bright lower floor advances, and as someone else said, the balance feels off. It reminds me of an Escher in the way that the downstairs doesn't seem any lower than the upstairs. All in all, I find it disconcerting, not satifying, but at least interesting, which is after all the purpose of a photo (to be interesting to look at). I don't think color does anything for the composition - it might be interesting to try b&w for that reason.

- Dennis

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Entracte said:

Entracte wrote:

Entracte said:

Ichinichi wrote:

I snapped this quick image out of an upper story internal window at the Louvre and upon review it really appealed to me; something about the placement or spacing of statues, people and foliage? Or the architecture? or lines? ????

Can someone explain? Or is it just appealing to me?

Edit: Unprocessed JPEG from Canon FD 24mm f/2 on Sony NEX 5N

Click to expand...

it doesn't work for me . Not easily readable , no real subject , some empty space ... look like a missed shot for me .

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DuncanDovovan said:

DuncanDovovan wrote:

DuncanDovovan said:

Dennis wrote:

It's a really weird picture. The curved shadows fight with the straight lines, the dark colors high up recede while the bright lower floor advances, and as someone else said, the balance feels off. It reminds me of an Escher in the way that the downstairs doesn't seem any lower than the upstairs. All in all, I find it disconcerting, not satifying, but at least interesting, which is after all the purpose of a photo (to be interesting to look at). I don't think color does anything for the composition - it might be interesting to try b&w for that reason.

- Dennis

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Ichinichi said:

Ichinichi wrote:

Ichinichi said:

Entracte wrote:

Ichinichi said:

Ichinichi wrote:

I snapped this quick image out of an upper story internal window at the Louvre and upon review it really appealed to me; something about the placement or spacing of statues, people and foliage? Or the architecture? or lines? ????

Can someone explain? Or is it just appealing to me?

Edit: Unprocessed JPEG from Canon FD 24mm f/2 on Sony NEX 5N

Click to expand...

it doesn't work for me . Not easily readable , no real subject , some empty space ... look like a missed shot for me .

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I've replied to every comment/post, so it would be odd for me not to reply here. Thanks for your input.

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PhotoHawk said:

PhotoHawk wrote:

This photo is interesting to me for the following:

The photo is mostly monochromatic - interesting in itself for the complexity of the scene. However the green trees in a diagonal crossing a rule of thirds line is also curious composition wise.

The photo is not aligned so it different than the majority horizontal aligned photos.

Yet the rule of thirds works (for me at least) My eye travels up the trees and down the the staircase to the statues. So the leading lines are attractive. Given the sight lines the tilt of the photo imparts a visual edginess.

I like the curvature of the window's shadow against the regular nature of the photograph. Interesting juxtaposition.

The content is curious and slightly ironic. Statues and frozen people - nice touch.

It hints at an Escher drawing but is a photo of a live scene as opposed to a drawing. But its a nice allegory.

I wouldn't align it nor straighten nor crop it in any way. It works for me as is. It would very nice on a wall as an 8x10. Try it and see what it looks like.

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