I guess I will be the first!

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Permalink Reply by Damon Knight on July 22, 2011 at 8:51am

Digging the shadows and the vibrant colors. I really wish the cars in front weren't there, but I'm sure that was out of your control. In all the art and photography classes I've taken, the power of thirds has been stressed. You try to break up the visual into thirds. So if you were taking a landscape picture and the sky, you would want the land to be say 2/3 of the frame ... and the sky 1/3 or vice versa. I think the same might help this shot. Perhaps if the larger building and tree were 2/3rds of the frame ... and more of the building on the right was in view allowing for it to be 1/3. And of course, I get rid of the cars(!)

 

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Permalink Reply by Judy Orcutt on July 22, 2011 at 4:47pm

I think it is too busy.  I like the shadow too. I wonder if you cropped it??  Judy

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Permalink Reply by Bob Crum on July 22, 2011 at 4:54pm

Howdy Khali,

 

First... congratulations on being the ice-breaker. It takes courage to be the first and I applaud you for taking the big step.

 

Generally, I refrain from suggesting how other photographers should or should not compose their photos. After all... photography is a very personal artistic expression... is it not? But since this is about a photo critique... I will comment about what I see... and sentiments from my perspective.

 

I can readily understand why the shadow of the tree on the wall of the building caught your eye. As form and contrast... it is interesting. And given the extreme range of light in the entire photo... from shadows to the bright-lit part of the building... the exposure is surprisingly good.

 

Now... for a couple of issues that quickly caught my eye. I'm referring to what I see as keystoning. From top to bottom... did you not notice that the right wall (looking at the photo) of the main building is leaning to the left? Notice that the far left red door is leaning to the right. The issue can be remedied to a large degree in Photoshop... even Photoshop Elements. I took the image into Elements and saw 18 points of distortion. After an adjustment... the wall... and red doors... were relatively straight.

 

Now... the car. Half a car in the image disturbs my sensibilities... sort of like a street shot with peoples legs cut off at the knees. This has nothing to do with the rule of thirds as much as it applies to presenting a more esthetically pleasing image. Besides... cars parked on a street is a perfectly normal circumstance so I would expect to see a whole car parked in front of the building.

 

Removing the half of the car in the image is not impossible with Photoshop but it would be tedious at best. Instead... were it me... I would have gotten low on the street... even lying down... and shooting up... getting the whole car... as well as the whole front wall of the building with the tree shadows. From my perspective... perhaps it would have been a more complete... and pleasing photo. Just a thought.

 

To summarize... my critique about the composition (for example the issue of the car) is purely subjective. Esthetics is in both the eye of the shooter and the viewer. On the other hand... I propose that the apparent distortion is a technical issue and should be recognized as such and remedied in post processing. The car notwithstanding... with a little photo editing you could end up with both an image that captures the target shadows that cought your eye while presenting a more technically correct image. What say you?

 

Happy shooting.!

 

Photog Bob,

Fillmore, CA, USA

 

 

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