Book Club Topic: Composition - The Photographer's Eye, Chapter 1, The Image Frame

TTuna Eye wrote in post #14141809
That is cool, whatever it is. Did those rocks get in those cracks on their own? The square works fine though my eyes want to see more on the sides.

Looks like it might be a whale's backbone.

I went to the cinematic dimensions (2.55:1) on this one as I thought it caught enough of the shoreline and emphasized the great big sea. This is from the Invisibles dive site on the island of Bonaire in the Dutch Caribbean.

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TTuna Eye wrote in post #14141809
That is cool, whatever it is. Did those rocks get in those cracks on their own? The square works fine though my eyes want to see more on the sides.

Thanks, yep it's a whale's spine. A couple of years ago, we'd get a good whiff of the dead whale on our ride up the coast. I was kind of forcing this into the square frame but I don't know if I had any better solutions with other aspect ratios. Only a portion of the spine was revealed during low tide but it was kind of creepy looking, like a burrowing snake. The rocks did settle into the cracks on their own. (I think.)

cacawcacaw wrote in post #14141372
That's a great shot and works well with the square format. Do you suppose that there's a general rule for using the square aspect ratio? I wonder if a square frame works better with shots that don't have as much depth, where the eye isn't invited to wander between the foreground and background so much.

Here's a shot from my poor-man's whale-watching trip on Wednesday.

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(Sorry for the low quality image. My computer crapped out last week and I'm still trying to figure out whether to repair it or transfer everything to my Costco rental. )

Definitely a good pic for square format. I think that it has to be an image that is very regular to "work" with square format. Anything repetitive will do, or anything where you can get exactly three repeats (the eye likes three) within the frame composed well would also work. In the end, sometimes you just have to take you image, try a square crop and see if there's a way it works within that frame, I think...

TTuna Eye wrote in post #14141888
I went to the cinematic dimensions (2.55:1) on this one as I thought it caught enough of the shoreline and emphasized the great big sea. This is from the Invisibles dive site on the island of Bonaire in the Dutch Caribbean.

Definitely works for the broad perspective!

My eye wants to follow the arrow. Looking for the gold at the end of the rainbow beach?

Lowner wrote in post #14144688
My eye wants to follow the arrow. Looking for the gold at the end of the rainbow beach?

Yeah, I was wondering if there should be more leading space in the direction of the arrow. I like it though, because it definitely tells a story.

A seascape always works well with a panorama, but there are a few distractions in the photo to me.

One, as suggested above - the arrow pointing down makes my eye go down. . . and is disappointed when it doesn't lead anywhere. It just seems like a confusing message.

The angle of the horizon line and the shore line just don't feel "pleasing" to me. I apologize that I can't articulate it well, it just doesn't feel right.

Positively, I love the colors yellow against blue. The yellow has such a graphic punch to it.

I agree about the exit arrow pointing out of the frame. I couldn't add anymore to the frame without my shadow showing. It would have been better to do use the rocks that marked the entrance but if I remember correctly there were divers gearing up there and I didn't want anyone in the shot.

Appreciate the feedback all!

Here is a shot from last summer of spider webs between posts on my dock. I just tweaked the crop to the "golden ratio" and thought it was also a decent example of perspective.

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TTuna Eye wrote in post #14151209
... I just tweaked the crop to the "golden ratio" and thought it was also a decent example of perspective.

I read an article about using the Golden Ratio and the author never even discussed changing the aspect ratio - it was all about taking pictures of things that showed the Golden Ratio.

The book talks about the "harmonic balance" of exact proportions but then implies that 3.2 is close enough to the 1.6 Golden Ratio. I'm not sure what to take away from this - perhaps that the actual harmonics of composition are more intuitive than mathematical. One thing for sure, that spider web photo sure has my eye moving all over the place in a really good way. A great example of how good composition can make a common scene very interesting.

Here's a shot my brother took and I processed (cropped to the 3:2 "fool's gold ratio"). I liked the way this crop has a lot of weight at the bottom, the frame is sort of supported by the arches at the top, and the lines of the building form frames within frames.

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My first sample. I like the framing on this photo taken last month. The extreme PP is due to the fact that it was shot in flat, harsh midday sunlight with high clouds and I just couldn't find a "normal" process that was interesting. I did like the composition though, so I ended up with this look.

I'd love to hear any comments on the framing and composition per the discussion about Chapter 1.

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Preeb wrote in post #14152101
.... I'd love to hear any comments on the framing and composition per the discussion about Chapter 1.

Hey Rick,

I don't normally like lightened vignetting but this shot pulls it off, maybe because of the spiritual effect of the cross combined with the bleak vegetation. I kind of wish that cross at the top of the building was more pronounced. It seemed like the picture was missing a focal point until my eye finally found it.

The only criticisms I can come up with are that my eye wants to see what's over to the right of the curve in the road, and I'd like it better if the feathering around the edge of the image (can't think of a better way to describe it) was more even. If the dark colors are going to jut out, I'd like it better if the road and the pile of rocks also jutted out into the lightened area.

Nice processing for that image.

cacawcacaw wrote in post #14152236
Hey Rick,

I don't normally like lightened vignetting but this shot pulls it off, maybe because of the spiritual effect of the cross combined with the bleak vegetation. I kind of wish that cross at the top of the building was more pronounced. It seemed like the picture was missing a focal point until my eye finally found it.

The only criticisms I can come up with are that my eye wants to see what's over to the right of the curve in the road, and I'd like it better if the feathering around the edge of the image (can't think of a better way to describe it) was more even. If the dark colors are going to jut out, I'd like it better if the road and the pile of rocks also jutted out into the lightened area.

Nice processing for that image.

Thanks for the comments. I agree about the right side. I tried moving around, but I couldn't seem to get a better angle with the lens I had on at the time, and I didn't have a lot of time to play with it. Fortunately, it should still be there when I get back to the island next month, and I can easily go back and try some more. I really like this small, unpretentious church, and I want to work it some more. If I could get farther away I could try a short telephoto and get some compression, making the cross on the little church more evident, but across the road behind me is brushy, jungle like vegetation, so it just isn't possible to do much along those lines.

Preeb wrote in post #14152519
... Fortunately, it should still be there when I get back to the island next month, and I can easily go back and try some more... .

Shows what a rank amateur I am. I've never even thought of going back to a photo location to see if I can do better!