Wayne Culberson wrote:
> I suppose there could be any number of opinions, but just for the fun of it,
> if anyone cares to, perhaps someone could offer some suggestions on how they
> would fix these three pictures. Or maybe just scrap them?
>
> Cropping advice needed on this one. I have looked at this one quite a while,
> but can't see any way to crop it to salvage a good picture. Obviously the
> window ledge of the vehicle needs to go, and probably the light pole. I
> wanted to include the flowers and the vertical rockface though, but I don't
> see how to keep that without the stupid cows walking out of the picture. To
> me there is way too much useless space at the top of the picture, and I
> don't see how to get rid of it and keep a good ratio picture.
> http://pastway.smugmug.com/gallery/989644/1/67823089
>
To me, the struggle here is because there are two different
pictures/stories in there. One is a tighter crop that emphasizes the
people, their task and the flowers and cliff. The second, which I like a
little better, I think, uses only a minor crop, which loses the pole,
but is primarily to make the figures relatively a little bigger,
whileretaining much of the background to show their small arable plot in
context of the general rocky, unyielding countryside
<http://www.moosemystic.net/Gallery/Others/WayneCows/>.
> Okay, I'll blame these two on shutter lag on the C5050 (have to blame
> somebody :)
> http://pastway.smugmug.com/gallery/989644/1/67823101
> http://pastway.smugmug.com/gallery/989644/1/67823107
> Stupid cows walked too far into the picture while the camera was fooling
> around trying to do its part. So, in the first one, the colored cow ends up
> obscuring the black one, making a multi-legged ox. What can you do with
> that? And in the second picture they were supposed to be walking into the
> picture, with me obeying the rule of thirds, and instead end up perfectly in
> the middle. Would you leave it that way, or crop it back to obey the rule of
> thirds?
>
For me, both these images suffer more from other image weaknesses than
from composition faults. Interestingly, they largely suffer from
opposite problems.
The first is flat and dull looking. Bring up the sky detail, enhance
local and overall contrast, and it becomes interesting enough that the
leg problem just isn't any big deal. Of course, at full size, one could
clone out the extras, but I wouldn't bother. I like it cropped a little
to tighten up the focus on the central action without losing context.
Sharpened up the crop just a bit.
The second suffers from excessive contrast, with shadow detail not
visible and highlights lost. Bring the shadows up and highlights down
and it looks better balanced. I'm not a great adherent to the rule of
thirds, or many other rules, especially when a shot is about story, as
these are to me. I do notice that my crop in this case brings things
closer to thirds, but that's not my primary reason. A little sharpening
of the cropped one really helps, especially the man's shirt and the
black cow's nose and eye, so it's face provides a central focal point.
> Wayne (who can't find a good picture to post just now)
>
Sure you did! :-)
Moose
==============================================
List usage info: http://www.zuikoholic.com
List nannies: olympusadmin@xxxxxxxxxx
==============================================
|