I'm so confused?

Sirashley · Jun 9, 2008

Ok, I'm so confused. I love this photo, but technically, everything I have learned about photography is wrong in this photo. There is no subject, but yet I'm drawn to the photo. There is no rule of thirds, but I feel the eye still moves. It conveys the feeling I had when I was there. Am I wrong for liking this and moreover, is there anything I could have done to make it better...

Yahoozy · Jun 10, 2008

rules are meant to be broken my friend =P

StillImage · Jun 10, 2008

Nothing wrong with breaking the rules as long as you know what the rules are first. If you like a photo it is all that matters as long as it is not for a paying client.

abraxas · Jun 10, 2008

Nice spiral into the shot, at least for me.

Framing, pattern, light, subject (vineyard). little bit of foreground interest. ...

Nice shot, but if this is against -everything you've learned, well...

Sirashley · Jun 10, 2008

abraxas said:
Nice spiral into the shot, at least for me.

Framing, pattern, light, subject (vineyard). little bit of foreground interest. ...

Nice shot, but if this is against -everything you've learned, well...

I didn't see the Vineyard as a subject but you're right. I'm a total noob and am still learning, I'm not sure what you mean by pattern though.

"everything you've learned" = not very much...LOL... This was my first trip with my DSLR so I'm trying to gage which photos came out the best. I'm also trying to learn the proper steps of photography, I guess I took a few of them to literally... Thanks for the replies guys...

droyz2000 · Jun 10, 2008

A strong diagonal also helps with eye movement. You have that with the post in the center. That post leads your eye to the tree branch that frames your picture. That branch also curves back into the picture, that is probably why your eye tends to move. At least that is way that I read the image.

BoblyBill · Jun 10, 2008

One thing that I keep coming back to when I shoot is, "Do I like this shot because of the experience I had or for it's natural beauty?" What I mean by that is I think we mentally put too much value on our own shots because of the experience we had when we were there subconsiously. For excample: This shot of my sister means lots to me

But it's because I know why she is making that somewhat goofy face. As far as your picture, I like it except the crooked horizon.

Bifurcator · Jun 10, 2008

Sirashley said:
Ok, I'm so confused. I love this photo, but technically, everything I have learned about photography is wrong in this photo.

I don't think so.

There is no subject, but yet I'm drawn to the photo.

Subject = farming, work, nature encroaching, maintenance, etc..

There is no rule of thirds, but I feel the eye still moves.

It follows the rule of thirds to me and with a centered and level horizon of interest too.

It conveys the feeling I had when I was there.

That's really all that counts. As others have said, the rules are just general guides and are flexible and breakable at will.

Am I wrong for liking this and moreover, is there anything I could have done to make it better...

Color balance or hue in some more reds and greens and tone down the yellows? Darkening or blueing the sky might help things a bit too - <shrug>. I'd take a shot at it but it's too tiny and you have "My Photos Are NOT OK to Edit" in your profile.

Sirashley · Jun 10, 2008

I'm going to change that in my profile, I just picked that when I signed up, I'd actually like people to edit my photos.. LOL... Also, if you edit it, could you tell me how you did it so I know what to do for next time...

Bifurcator · Jun 10, 2008

http://tesselator.gpmod.com/Images/_Text/TPFBS.txt

Sirashley · Jun 10, 2008

Wow man, that looks great. I'm really going to have to work on my photoshop skills. Right now I'm using Gimp on Mac because I'm freaking broke and it's free... I'm going to pick up elements when i get some extra flow. Thanks for the edit man and more importantly, how you did it. Looks great

Bifurcator · Jun 10, 2008

NP, Hey, I'm on a Mac too. I tried to use Gimp on 10.5.3 again recently but the GUI doesn't update right for me somehow. I'm using a NFR free version of PhotoShop 10.something - the CS3 enhanced something-or-other. What Mac ya on?

Sirashley · Jun 10, 2008

I'm on an old iBook G4, it's like 5 years old and limping...LOL.. but I'm milking it for all it's worth. I actually really like Gimp, but it was a pain in the arse to get it to work. I had to download some X11 utility, but through the work it was free so you can't beat the price... What about you, what mac are you on?

Bifurcator · Jun 10, 2008

I'm on a MacPro Intel. I got it as a 4 core but upgraded it myself to 8 cores. I like it too much so now my other six PCs almost never get used unless there's a CG job I have to render.

The Intel macs come with X11 installed (or maybe that's just true of OS X 10.x ??) and I like Gimp on Linux ok... It just bugs me on Mac for some reason. Film Gimp (AKA Cine Paint) is even worse. I wish some wizard would come along and make them all better.

If regular Gimp works well for you you might wanna try CinePaint - it does HDR as well and was basically created just for editing and batching HDRIs.