Lesson 5 Composition

[DoctorJazz]

I took this photo of the llama in field thinking of both the rule of thirds and the
use of diagonal lines for an interesting composition.....see first image....but now
I'm thinking that I didn't get the concept of diagonal lines right.....maybe it would
be more useful if the lines were converging toward the llama, rather than away off into the distance. So I cropped to change the llama's position to see if it made a
difference.....see 2nd image......Just curious for some feedback on this.

Thanks!

[eyerkish]

I took this photo of the llama in field thinking of both the rule of thirds and the
use of diagonal lines for an interesting composition.....see first image....but now
I'm thinking that I didn't get the concept of diagonal lines right.....maybe it would
be more useful if the lines were converging toward the llama, rather than away off into the distance. So I cropped to change the llama's position to see if it made a
difference.....see 2nd image......Just curious for some feedback on this.

Thanks!

Hi Sandy,

Very nice image. I think I would agree with you on the lines converging towards the llama. That would present a natural path for my eyes to follow. Thanks for posting.

[jerryph]

If I am looking at one of my practice shots of a photo meant to display a compositional object, and I need to look for that element, then that compositional aspect has not been met, IMHO.

In your photo, if you had not mentioned that you were looking for doagonal lines, I would not have guessed it at all. Rule of thirds, I would have maybe said it was weakly displayed, but that the subject of your picture is too far away to make any impact.

So, my comments are:
- Diagonal lines was completely missed, IMHO
- Rule of Thirds was displayed but very weak.

Mixing two compositional rules is tricky as one of them will always be more dominant and take away from the other. For diagonal lines, I would get real close to the fence and have it flow from one end of the picture to the other, and if I wanted the rule of thirds in it, I would make sure that the llama was at least 25% of the picture and not intersected in front of the lines at any point. As I said... tricky... lol.

[coffee]

I think the best image of the two is clear to me. The first has pretty good horizon lines for ROT. But that's all. The subject is just off center enough to be a little unbalanced. The second still maintains the great horizon lines, but adds the element of having the subject in a ROT position as well to give balance and brings more interest to the overall composition. So the choice to me is clear, with the cropped image much more enjoyable and pleasing to the eye. I personally like the horizon lines on the slant from the hill. Gives it an added dimension.

To take it one step further, the snow looks a little blue, and the subject a little dark which isn't unusual for a snow scene. If you can before submitting, if this is an assignment, I would try and adjust the white balance a little to warm it up and alleviate a little of the blue cast, and perhaps lighten the subject a little especially around the head area. Snow scenes are very hard to get exposed properly. I don't do a lot of these scenes but the ones I do have similar issues. Proper exposure and WB is much harder to achieve in a snow scene than one that has less of a contrast swing.

There are a few rules of thumb regarding snow that I've read and tried on occasion and have worked pretty well. One is to use your exposure compensation of +1/1.5 stops. Since the camera will try and compensate for the bright snow, it will darken the image globally leaving the subject or anything else in the scene dark. So compensating will help expose the subject more accurately. As far as the white balance, you might try and use a custom white balance by taking a shot of the same snow, and using your menu options to set a custom WB. That way the snow should come out more white as your eye sees it naturally.

You can also edit the image after the fact and adjust the color balance by moving the yellow/blue slider a little to the yellow side. You can also adjust the WB of the image in a RAW processor by kelvin degrees.

Hope this helps.

[DoctorJazz]

Thanks for the tremendous help on this Eddie, Jerry and Joseph.....I am
learning a lot about the white balance issue as we speak.....I will work on that with
this photo among others.....as far as the basic composition, all of your input is so much appreciated. I look forward to the rest of the course and talking with you all.

A little follow-up edit.....I'll post alongside images one and two.....little adjustment on white balance as Joseph suggested, as well as little exposure correction for the llama.