How do you avoid 'Marina Clutter'?

[sugarzebra]

It seems difficult to avoid compositional clutter in marina photos. Any tips?

[Titus213]

Shoot on the open seas?

[poke]

I know your taking a photo of a marina... but whats the target subject. Is it one of the boats, is it a group of them... is it the marina as a whole?

Once you have determined exactly what your trying to take a photo of, then you can go into brainstorm mode, and work out the best way to shoot it. If your just taking a happy snap of all the boats in the marina, then cluttered is what your gonna get.

One suggestion, is to find the target subject, then work out how to reduce the depth of field to give a blurred / bokeh'd background. This will still give the viewer the knowledge that its in a marina, but will help draw the eye to what your really trying to show.

just m2c, but don't think I'm trying to say its easy :)

[Overbeyond]

Of course there is no reason why a photograph of clutter should not be interesting.

[lmitch6]

Taking that scene for example, it would be difficult, with what looks like a low tide. If the tide was higer for example, the boats themselves would have hidden the background better. for a shot like this, I'd have tried to either get lower, or use a telephoto lens to isolate elements of the scene rather than going for the "sweeping view".

Hope this helps!

[Robert_Lay]

My suggestion is go for night shot and hope you pick a night when there are a few of the boats lit up. As a general rule, if the building itself is fairly dark at night, that will fade into the shadows and the boats may stand out more.
It's a crap shoot.

[sugarzebra]

Thanks for the suggestions...I'm glad to work on DOF and low light shots because that will justify buying that 24-70 and/or 70-200 2.8L I 'need'! These are two shots that I tried to make cleaner looking, but I'm not sure they work well.

[GPR1]

Fog.

But assuming the weather gods don't smile on you, not all marina possibilities are made equal. If that's the place I think it is, on the San Fran waterfront, it's tough to simplify the image effectively. You're working around crowds of people and you can't get onto the docks. Getting down onto the docks helps.

As the post above says, go into problem solving mode, move around, try to isolate what caught your eye, use light or weather if you can, etc.

If it's any comfort, I've shot a lot of marina shots and have few I like.

Good luck,

Greg

[Robert_Lay]

Thanks for the suggestions...I'm glad to work on DOF and low light shots because that will justify buying that 24-70 and/or 70-200 2.8L I 'need'! These are two shots that I tried to make cleaner looking, but I'm not sure they work well.

The upper one of these two certainly gets my vote!

The fact that the fog selectively washes out the background is very effective.

[mgreenlee]

It seems difficult to avoid compositional clutter in marina photos. Any tips?
I like to crop in a little. Hope you don't mind what I did.
42218
42219
Check out my thread in Travel & Landscapes "I like boats" from a day or two ago.

BTW - I like your work.

[Robert_Lay]

Both of those crops by "mgreenlee" are quite well done.
The bottom one is really great!

It just totally changes everything to get rid of the distractions - giving emphasis to the reflections in the water is quite effective here.

Notice how it abolishes the monotony and the "static" composition of all the other views. That last image keeps the eye moving around in a large circle, which is just what you want. Note that none of the other compositions do that as well as the last image does it.

[sugarzebra]

Thanks for the edits and improvements Marion. When composing the shots I purposely left the masts in view (as for some reason I thought they had to be included) knowing that at the same time they would clutter the resulting image. The second edit is great and the reflections of the masts are retained in the crop which makes an even more compelling image than the actual masts themselves.

[mgreenlee]

[quote=sugarzebra]Thanks for the edits and improvements Marion. When composing the shots I purposely left the masts in view (as for some reason I thought they had to be included) ...

In the second one, I didn't see the need to show the newer fishing boat or the deck & light brown mask. Keep up the good work.
MG
PS. I wish I lived by or at a marina. I would live on a boat if I could talk my wife into it.

[sugarzebra]

Here are two more marina pictures to critique, at Piers 39 & 41 in San Francisco.

[Robert_Lay]

These last two are classic examples of the composition rule having to do with "natural framing".

Here the photographer has taken advantage of the surroundings to provide a frame for his subject(s) of interest.

Usually, it's a good idea, if the opportunity presents itself.

Unfortunately, the 2nd picture is a little too much blocked up in the shadows, the the 1st one of these last two gets my vote.

[SWPhotoImaging]

Thanks for the suggestions...I'm glad to work on DOF and low light shots because that will justify buying that 24-70 and/or 70-200 2.8L I 'need'! These are two shots that I tried to make cleaner looking, but I'm not sure they work well.

I really like the Monterey Marina one with the three prows lined up in a diagonal row.

I love marinas too, and struggle with how to show the mood and lifestyle without the clutter.

This link is to a couple of my shots from Monterey yacht harbor that I think work well.

http://sdwike.smugmug.com/gallery/614815

[sugarzebra]

Thanks Bob & Steve for your helpfull comments. California sure is a beautiful. Your two shots from the Monterey Marina are very good Steve.

[sugarzebra]

Hi Bob,
I made an initial attemp to save this shot with PS, however made things worse. The hours needed to do a good job PP'ing a photo would have been easily redeemed by concentrating on (and getting) a better exposure in the first place!