C & C please

hydkaran420 · May 1, 2012

Hi there, been long time I've not posted anything. So here are two pics of many I clicked recently. I would love to hear from everyone comments, compliments, complaints or suggestions

. Thanks in advance. Cheers.

1.

Life less ! by hydkaran420, on Flickr

2. Cropped and edited on my phone.

Goose in the Farm ! by hydkaran420, on Flickr

Sent from my iPad using PhotoForum

DiskoJoe · May 1, 2012

Ducks!

PapaMatt · May 1, 2012

I see a dead tree and dinner :lmao:

SoCalTiger · May 1, 2012

I like the color and depth of #1 but I think it is cropped in too much. The top and sides are cut and I would have liked to see it down to the ground.

It also would have been ideal if that second tree in the bottom right wasn't there, but, you can't necessarily control that unless you have a clean view of the tree you are capturing.

hydkaran420 · May 1, 2012

SoCalTiger said:
I like the color and depth of #1 but I think it is cropped in too much. The top and sides are cut and I would have liked to see it down to the ground.

It also would have been ideal if that second tree in the bottom right wasn't there, but, you can't necessarily control that unless you have a clean view of the tree you are capturing.

Thanks buddy. I agree with you but the tree was very near n this was the best I could get at that time.

Sent from my iPad using PhotoForum

TCampbell · May 1, 2012

Good & bad.

I love #2. There's no rule of thirds and I don't care. The vignetting is strong -- also don't care. People will pick on those points but there are always times when you get to break the rules. In #2 I see subject isolation by both selective focus and selective lighting. The photo tells a story. These guys look ilk they're coming home from a day at the swim hole -- it doesn't matter what they're really doing, you've caught them with the right shutter speed to show that they're strolling back home from somewhere (or maybe they're on their way out to somewhere.) Lighting is nice - maybe just a touch hot in a few places but calming that down would have made them too dark in front -or- you'd have to use a weak flash contribution to fill in. In any case, I love the shot!

#1... not so much. I'm looking at this and I'm wondering how you want me to connect to this. What am I looking at? Sure it's a tree. It's just sort of an indiscriminate crop of the top of the tree. I'm not so close that I can see any juicy details. And yet the tree isn't "grounded" in anyway. There's no anchor. Nothing is happening in the tree. The lines aren't leading me to some focal point of interest in the image.

You've got a sepia treatment applied. Actually it looks like you've heavily warmed up both of these images. It works with the geese because the effect specifically adds to the image. It suggests warmness and sunset (or maybe it's very early morning sunrise.) In any case, you can get away with it because this effect specifically adds to the image... it's an ingredient in the overall visual-meal that we can taste.

But in the second shot, it's just a sepia treatment. I don't see a particular reason to add it. When people convert photos to black & white, I usually ask them why. I'm not looking for a right or wrong answer -- I'm wondering if what THEIR motivation was for doing it. If they're doing it just because it seems to be the latest "in thing"... that's not a reason I'm looking for.

So in #1, I'd ask you... why did you take that shot? Why did you decide to crop it that way? What were you trying to convey or what did you see that made you think of this as compelling. Why did you apply a sepia treatment to it? In music, if an artist adds notes to a chord, there's a reason they added notes and more importantly, there's a reason they added the very specific notes they choose to use - not just any random notes would have done. Photography is a bit similar. The sepia treatment (essentially an orange) has color balance when combined with blue or green. These create a color balance that's pleasing to the eye. But as a monochrome the color doesn't help unless it were there to suggest age -- but the tree isn't shot in such a way as to suggest age or being ancient.

Connect with it and help ME connect with it. You did that in #2. The geese cause me to think about how people behave -- there's even some humor in the shot and each of the treatments, the cropping, composition, focus, lighting, vignette, and tinting, all "add" to this in ways that help tell a story, convey some feelings, and make me connect with it. But in #1... I'm looking at random branches on the top of a tree that isn't anchored and there's no connection here. Monochrome images can eliminate the distraction of colors if they have something interesting to show off -- and usually that will be in contrast, texture, structure, patterns, or something else that might be captivating. I could imagine using the structure of the tree branches as the basis for a double exposure -- superimposing something else where the patterns of the lines would add to an overall image.

Your exposures are fine. Your focus seems sharp (as well as I can see in these sizes). You've got the basics working for you. In #2 you've got composition working for you -- just not in #1. You might be interested in "The Photographer's Eye" by Michael Freeman. This book is mostly about compositional elements that go into a great photograph and how to think about them.

Jaemie · May 1, 2012

I love #2 and I think the heavy editing and vignetting work in this case. The ducks are irresistible.

camerateur · May 1, 2012

love the ducks!!
not just because they're adorable.. its a good picture. great color/shadows.

vignette works.
would love to see some edits to the brights that look like they're going though the ducks' necks.. kind of distracts. other than that, great picture.

o hey tyler · May 2, 2012

I really like photo 2. It's a great capture. Almost makes me think of the opening of Reservoir Dogs. The ducks have a certain "pack" or "gang" mentality that bleeds through into this image. Almost comically.

Number one... well. It's just not great compared to the ducks.

hydkaran420 · May 2, 2012

Thanks a lot TCampbell for your time. As I've said above the tree was very near and there was no way I could capture the whole tree, I intentionally cropped out the tree base because there was lot more trash which was absolutely distracting. About the sephia thing the sky was too bright in the BG, so I tried to apply blue mask but it doesn't looked good so I settled for orangish mask.

Joel_W · May 2, 2012

Absolutely love the Duck picture. Just a very strong composition that has so much emotion. Personally, I would have cropped a little more off of each side as all that empty space doesn't add anything to your picture.

hydkaran420 · May 3, 2012

thanks a lot Joel_W. To me this crop looked better than other crops i tried.

jaxx419 · May 3, 2012

Those geese remind me of ours!! They would come right up to our front door and wait for us to come out the follow us to the pond for food. Precious photo. I like the tree also, but prefer the geese.

Kayak · May 3, 2012

The ducks are great! From an angle not typical for this type of shot, and the symmetry works. The lighting, shadows and colors make it interesting to look at. Focus on the main subject appears to be spot on. Great crop and edit.