ShipSilhouette

Machine May · Sep 28, 2004

To me (i.e., the untrained), this pic seems almost flawless. Please share your thoughts:

http://tracymilburn.com/public/img/Galveston/ShipSilhouette.jpg

MDowdey · Sep 28, 2004

ok heres my critique:

1) the pic is too cluttered
2) there is no object of focus
3) the colors are great!
4) this is a great snap!!

just my .02

md

Big Mike · Sep 28, 2004

As this is the critique gallery...here is goes...

First off, it doesn't look straight. The land (or pier) is leaning one way while it looks like the horizon is tilted the other way.

I would like to see the tops of the boat's masts. Either that or cut off some of the top.

I would also like to be able see more detail on the boats and other stuff. They are just a little too dark. Maybe it's my monitor, maybe not.

While this is a very nice scene. A strong photograph should have a strong subject. There is just too much going on in this photo.

I do like it, as I said, it is a very nice scene and a nice capture by you.

Machine May · Sep 28, 2004

"there is no object of focus "

that's correct... it's supposed to be a shot of the whole scene, without a particular object in focus. As for cluttered, I can kind of see that... maybe a bit. Thanks

Alison · Sep 28, 2004

Machine May said:
"there is no object of focus "

that's correct... it's supposed to be a shot of the whole scene, without a particular object in focus. As for cluttered, I can kind of see that... maybe a bit. Thanks

When there is not a main object of focus it is difficult for the viewer to navigate the photos. Certainly there are many compositional styles, but the viewer should easily navigate the photo, be drawn in if you will. I think that is what Bike Mike was getting at.
I think this would be a stronger image with some exposure adjustment. On two different monitors this looks underexposed. Perhaps just having the three ships that are closest and not the other ones on the water would help remove some of the areas that are not as important to the photo.

Machine May · Sep 29, 2004

Interesting comments. Thanks

Digital Matt · Sep 29, 2004

The pier in the foreground is useless in this photo I think. I would rather see the bottom of the photo start at the boats, or maybe a bit of the pier there, but not all of it. Also the contrast is kind of flat. I too would like to see the tops of the masts. I feel like I'm missing something.

Machine May · Sep 29, 2004

Digital Matt said:
The pier in the foreground is useless in this photo I think. .

I agree. I tried to not take itbut my lense wouldn't go wide enough. I can try and crop it out.

"Also the contrast is kind of flat"

I kind of like it that way, again I wanted it to have a certain mistique about it. but I'll play around with that and see if it looks better or worse.

Digital Matt · Sep 29, 2004

Machine May said:
Digital Matt said:

The pier in the foreground is useless in this photo I think. .

Click to expand...

I agree. I tried to not take itbut my lense wouldn't go wide enough. I can try and crop it out.

You could have just raised your lens a bit so that wasn't showing. How wide your lens was shouldn't have affected that. The wider it was, the more would be showing. If anything a longer lens would have shown less of the pier.

Machine May · Sep 29, 2004

"You could have just raised your lens a bit so that wasn't showing"

I tried that at the time of course, but it cut too much out of the scene. I wanted to capture as much of the ships as possible. I'll try and cut it out using software and see if that helps, thanks

Digital Matt · Sep 29, 2004

That doesn't make sense. If you raised the lense to "crop" out the pier, you'd be showing more of the boats. You'd have included all ore more of their masts. All you would have done was eliminate the pier and put that percentage of the photo on top.