Would love some feedback (4 new photos for C+C)

gsm275 · May 19, 2010

Working like crazy trying to sharpen my composition and creative skills. Would love some constructive feedback!

Pic 1

Pic 2

Pic 3

Pic 4

er111a · May 19, 2010

I like them all except for #3 that is doing nothing for me. In #1 I feel the boat is the main subject but it is blurry and the buildings behind it are what my eyes are drawn to. 2 I like a lot lighting it nicely placed and it looks like it could be a hdr(not sure). then four is somewhat boring but I like the red guy.

shmne · May 19, 2010

I'm having a hard time looking at these, awfully small to be honest :|

Just looking at the composition,

1. Doesn't really do much, there really isn't much eye flow going on and quite literally I find myself searching for the colors in the buildings since that is much more pleasing then the darkened image.

2. The cars are actually playing along with the body shop sign above which has a building growing out of it, which wouldn't have been that big of a deal but since it is actually brighter the eye is drawn to it instantly. A lot of that could be because of the side vignette that is on there, which by the way is just a tad strong. Generally anymore vignettes should be used with a soft hand so that the viewer isn't forced into the center of the frame right off the bat, it is generally better to use them as a guide so that the viewer slowly goes from the edge of the frame to the center.

You may want to actually cut off the skyline and extra buildings on top, and replace them with something more pleasing. It would actually be very easy since the way you shot it you drew some nice solid lines separating the foreground from the background.

3. Given the darkness of the rest of the image, the player really blows out of the scene. Almost like a small nuclear reaction. Think of it this way, when you walk into a dark hallway what is the last thing you want to see? Pure white light. Your eyes would just freak out, and it'd suck because the rest of the hallway would appear to be darker then it previously was since your eyes just had to crunch their aperture all the way down so they wouldn't get burnt out.

Now this may be more extreme since the image is so small, what happens is the proximity to the whiter player makes it appear like he is much brighter then the rest of the image. He could be barely brighter at all, its just tough to tell.

As far as composition, I would have loved to see a tight vertical crop leaving plenty of horizontal room to accentuate the action going on here. This is a crop most people don't like (at least I think since I never see it) but it would be really neat to see. Plus that crop would get rid of the distracting blob of shadow in the background.

4. After all of your heavily processed images, this one appears to have no major editing done (just the regular tweaks). I think you missed the trees that are creating strong lines into the center of your frame, because then you have this statue off center. What ends up happening is poor eye flow that doesn't lead the viewer anywhere really. Next time keep in mind how powerful lines can be, and use them to your advantage, or break the rule on purpose and use the lines to create chaos.