Past the Stairs

[Iron Flatline]

Simple question: is this boring? I thought I had something compositionally, but my wife says it's boring.

Thoughts?

 

[New England Moments]

Iron...

Actually I think the shot is pretty good myself... The lines / angles and color work well in this... I think what throws me , and maybe your wife to , is your choice to include the people...

That to me ( might be just me ?? ) just throws out the abstract feel to this pic, and almost throws it into snapshot??? not meaning disrespect by snapshot either..

I don't know, but can see why you like it too! Maybe another type crop? I'm not sold on the door at the top of the stairs?? Maybe some more play with different POV's also... but shot is good , just has more potential, worth playing with!! Nice Job. Good eye!

 

[Alpha]

I concur with your wife. You aren't giving her enough money. er...i mean...it's boring.

Looks like a snap.

 

[Trenton Romulox]

I like the shot myself. I mean, because the people are there it does sort of give it that snapshot feel, but I still like it. The shapes are powerful and the lines sort of pull your eyes around. Your wife just doesn't understand.

 

[Rusty_Tripod]

Your wife has a good eye. Boring!

Of course, I can say that because I recall a photo by Henri Cartier Bresson of a set of steps that were far from boring. Gary Winogrand also has a good example.

These steps suggest movement and draw the viewer into the picture. However, it appears that the ladies, who just happen to be centered in the pathway, are looking upward to the top or vanishing point, and I, the viewer, and wondering what they are looking at. It must have been important because they are looking up, but you cut it off with my framing. Thus, the image is disconcerting. There is no answer for me. I shrug my shoulders and walk on to the next photo.

Rusty Tripod

 

[TheLostPhotographer]

I've already given it Three minutes of my valuable time so, no way can I say it's boring. It's involving in ways that ask me why it's involving. Just the composition? The frozen movement of the people representing a fraction of a second in an unchanging environment?

I like it. Definitely not boring. Just needs a bit of time to work.

 

[crownlaurel]

I think if there were either more people going up or down the stairs (maybe one with a motion blur or maybe someone sitting on he stairs studying) or if there were no people at all, the boring-ness level would be different. Or even if there were some story to be drawn from the two girls other than walking in front of some stairs...but I have to agree: in its current presentation, it's rather boring.

 

[LaFoto]

Well, I don't find it boring AT ALL.
I really like the well thought-out composition here, placement of the stairs and the girls right in the middle of the stairs, and the "disconcerting" fact that we cannot see what is at the end of the stairs, i.e. what it is one of them is looking at, adds tension to the photo, makes us wonder and thus the photo more interesting.

More people in other, different places would have cluttered this very calm composition which is dominated by the strictly vertical and horizontal lines of the tiles and the very straightfowardly vanishing point of the stairs.

I think I know where this is, could I know it? Not that I have been DOWN those stairs before, but I think I have these tiles in one or two of my photos, too? (Maybe).

ETA: Oops, I am in Critical Analysis! :shock:
Scratch my last sentence, it has no place here. Sorry. (I won't scratch it myself so, I believe in communication beyond just critique - even in class - my teacher were never quite so much on my side, though).

 

[TimboAA]

Boring? No. Exciting? No. I feel like I could this photo in a business brochure, it has good good lines, placement of people and all of the other things that were mentioned above me. I feel like some people may judge it as a photo that is boring because we see these types of photos frequently, so it isn't anything out of the ordinary. Overall it has good composition.

 

[Iron Flatline]

Thanks all, I appreciate the time you've taken.

Here's what I'm going to try: I like the stairs, and am going back to Potsadamer Platz to shoot there some more (to indirectly answer LaFoto )

I will wait for different (more interesting people) to enter the shot. It may be a slightly longer wait though, it's mainly tourists there. Maybe someone with an umbrella in the endless rain...

I will compose the shot so that it is differently balanced - the people not in front of the stairs, but rather in front of the striped wall. That might change the tension.

I will pick up the garbage.

I will ubrn in the door at the top, to make it more mysterious...

It'll be a week before I get to do that though...

Again, thanks for your time, I appreciate it.

 

[sayambhu]

1. would have been good if you could get a couple sharing a happy moment together, sitting at a corner of the stairs. expressions of faces would have added to the photograph, unless you want to do pattern photography.

2. your composition has damaged this one. look at the upper horizon - it ends abruptly nowhere... try getting the total architecture.

3. with point no.1, it would have been nice if you could get an old man walking down the stairs at the farthest distant point. that would have emphasized the depth in your picture.

4. try the above and let us see a Black & White conversion of the result, if its not a problem with you.

my hearty regards

 

[meotter]

i don't think the shot is boring, i really like the lines, but perhaps if you do a longer exposure, you can just get the people as blurs or "ghosts"

this will maintain the current frame and lines of the walls and stairs, and will hide the people's gazes out of frame as well as a number of other things...

bright colors to distract from the lines and darker or more earthy tones to blend into the image more...

 

[Apex]

i think a vertical panoramic shot would be more interesting to emphasize the size of the walls. the current shot makes me want to think how high the walls actually go.

 

[sage95]

I like the shot the way it is but maybe if the people were walking in the other direction and I also like the idea of making the people blur and Band W or sepia. Nice shot, not boring at all.