Ducklings fighting over food C&C

[Compaq]

EXIF DATA:
f5
ISO160
1/40th

Curves and unsharp mask in gimp + crop.
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IMG_8504edit by Bokehliciousness-ness, on Flickr

Ducklings are fun! And so cute How does the motion blur work here? There's one duckling in there in focus.

Compaq

 

[tirediron]

Hmmm... the motion blur isn't doing a lot for me. Is there any chance you could have got a lower shooting point?

 

[Compaq]

I guess that would be possible - and the photo would look a lot better as well! It just doesn't give very much now, does it? We're looking at the ducklings the way we always look at them - from above. A lower perspective would make it more interesting, yes! I might just go out and try again. Overcast today, not that harsh light I had that time.
This image is boring but I suppose I've learned something here as well

 

[The_Traveler]

Compaq,

This image doesn't work for me for the following reasons:

When I look at a picture, my eye looks for bright things, in-focus things, things in important places.
I instinctively expect lines to point me to important things.

When I see too many bright, in-focus things or lines directing me all over and there doesn't seem to be some coherent center of interest or when things compete with each other, everything gets confusing.

Here we have bright stuff at the left, bright areas all over, lines going every which way and the only really in-focus thing is sort of buried somewhere.

If this picture was cropped to cut out the contradictory and unimportant stuff and then burnt to tone down the intrusive bright areas, it is easier to look at and the patterns make more sense - at least to me.

Hope this is of interest to you.

Lew

 

[Compaq]

Very much help, indeed! This is great feedback. Composition is the hardest part, yet, when explained, it's all so logical!

Thanks again! If only everyone criticised like this

 

[The_Traveler]

Composition is the hardest part, yet, when explained, it's all so logical!

You're welcome.

These are the 'rules' sort of involuted.
The 'rules of composition are sort of a general consensus of what people like in pictures.
This is my own take on it; that people expect certain things, both because of out physiology (attraction to in-focus, brightness, bright color, etc.) and our socialization.
I plan on writing a longer explanation of my ideas as it relates to comfortable compositions.

Lew