Which one is a better composition

[amritagudral]

Hey..please help me which is a better image in terms of composition, exposure.... If both are not good , whats missing?? Thanks

Amrita

 

[tirediron]

I much prefer #2 as the greater expanse of coloured wall adds a significant degree of interest IMO. I think however the image might be further improved were the wall parrallel to the bottom of the frame. It might also be worth trying some different times of day and seeing what the scene looks like with different and/or no shadow.

 

[ronlane]

I agree with John that I like the second best. The reason is because of the shadows.

The only thing that bothers me is the shadows of you lower body on the wall of the second one.

 

[otherprof90 31]

Hey..please help me which is a better image in terms of composition, exposure.... If both are not good , whats missing?? Thanks View attachment 102529View attachment 102530

Amrita

My choice is also the second one. I would try it with the image rotated a few degrees clockwise, so the linear shadows at the bottom become veritical. I keep tilting my head to get that effect without thinking about it.

 

[Derrel]

Second one feels more unified. In the first one, the ground and flask (?) and the two old spar poles, and the corrugated roofing off to the left, those various elements, plus the chain link fencing and the brick street, all of that stuff forms a sort of "street and environment" part of the shot, and then there are the stairs; in shot #1 there is no central theme except "urban exterior". In the second shot, the colorful wall and the shadows on the wall, plus the stairs and shadows are the main focus...it has TWO things that dominate. As others have said, different time of day would change the shadows, and the shadows are a big part of #2.

 

[fjrabon]

With the second one I like the interplay of the curvature of the rainbow and the shadow of the spiral staircase. It visually ties together the two otherwise disparate elements, which is an issue with the first one. In the first image, the staircase and the ground are neither tied together nor a contrast. In the second image, there's enough color to create a somewhat balanced contrast and the shadow and the rainbow tie them together.

In the second image, my main issue is the very slight "tilt" of the wall line. It's like a 15 degree angle with horizontal. That angle strikes viewers as being enough to be noticeable, but not enough to seem intentional. It just seems like you messed up. My advice there would be to either make the line where the wall hits the ground perfectly horizontal along the upper 2/3 line of the image, or make it more extreme to impart the energy of a diagonal (diagonal lines in an image impart energy).

 

[fjrabon]

To kinda show what I was talking about with the second one:

uploadfromtaptalk1433256329166 by Franklin Rabon, on Flickr

I'd want to see that sort of angle a bit wider, but the cropping to straighten it pulled it down to roughly a 50mm FFE FOV.

Also a little bit more DoF would be good, probably shoot it at f/5.6 or f/8. Maybe even f/11 as it looks like you had plenty of light to not need to shallower DoF.

 

[MSnowy]

I like second with the tilt. To me the tilt give the picture a sense of motion that you feel when walking down a spiral staircase.

 

[fjrabon]

I like second with the tilt. To me the tilt give the picture a sense of motion that you feel when walking down a spiral staircase.

I don't mind the tilt per se, but I want a bit more if it's to be tilted. Hard to show via edit because that would radically reduce the image size. Like a 30-45 degree would be good too.