The Chapel

[snerd]

Sometimes, I don't think I'm cut out for photography. I mean, it's a LOT of fun, and I really enjoy it, but my progress seems sooooooooooo slow! After a year I should have some sense of composition, but I just don't seem to "get it." Anyway, here are 4 shots of the chapel at The Holy City of the Wichita's. After processing, they all just seem "off" for some reason. So let me have it.

 

[mmaria]

I can't tell you anything about processing because I'm having issues with monitor (silver efex perhaps?), but that chapel (building) is really nice... I must say that inside is really kitsch... I would like to visit it....

for composing, watch the lines and shapes everywhere and try to figure out how to frame them. Find one particular subject (that chandelier) and build composition for it.

 

[KenC]

Talk about a busy interior! The best approach usually is what you did in the last shot: isolate a piece of it. Here, I would have tried to find an angle/elevation that didn't cut off parts of the figures. Having them dispersed around the chandelier in the center is a composition that could work. One approach could be to stand more or less directly under the chandelier. The final image appears to be of a different one than is shown in the previous image, so it's hard to tell what might work.

In general, the best way to study composition is to look at a lot of visual art. Paintings are sometimes more instructive, imo, because painters have the freedom to place everything, while we sometimes are making do with what is there (unless we're arranging still life). Books on composition for painters can be useful. This one is good and inexpensive: Pictorial Composition: An Introduction