623 5th Avenue

Just walking by today and I liked the position of the sun putting the shadow of the numbers on the windows. Let me know what you think...

What if you cropped the doors out of the shot?

How's this? Took some off the top to so the "margin" matched the bottom.

Do you have enough room to fix the keystoning?

Guys, thank you so much for your critique...these are the things I'm learning to "see" as a very rank amateur/beginner. It's also forcing me to learn how to do things in Photoshop Is this what you had in mind Travis?

Vigetius wrote in post #17810466
as a very rank amateur/beginner. Is this what you had in mind Travis?

I don't want to offend anyone and make enemies, but as a beginner, you should learn to frame YOUR own photos as you see it, adjust as you go. create images that you like not what others like. taking photos of what YOU think what people will like is the wrong way to get started.

enjoy

Meeko, I can completely understand your comment, and do take it to heart. It's like this...I've been a musician my entire life (well, since grade 4 anyway) and make my living teaching and performing music. Sometimes a beginner or young person knows inside what they want to come out of their instrument, but don't know the technique to get it out. A nudge in the right direction can get them to say, "YES! That's what I wanted!"

Sometimes I look at a scene, object, person, whatever and know that I 'like' it, but I'm not sure why... I know I want to re-create the scene in a photo, but can't quite figure out how I can do that.

For instance, this photo...I was literally walking down the street and saw the sign...what caught my eye was two things...the shadow of the letters "Fifth Avenue" on the window glass, and the reflection of the church that's behind me in the windows. There was a big construction fence (they're working on the church) so the best I could do was hold the camera over the fence and shoot till I got something...now in my head, I knew that wasn't exactly what I wanted, but it was as close as I could get. Folks giving me framing tips and the like help me to see what I really wanted to see in the first place.

I know that probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but it's the best I could muster I've only been doing this for a few months, and the joy that I've gotten out of it has been amazing! Thank you to you and everyone else on this forum for sharing your work, your help, and your suggestions. I really appreciate it, and am learning a lot daily by reading and looking

I grok. I get NYC, if only as an occasional visitor. When I saw the original photo, I saw the address and the contrast, and eventually St. Patrick's reflected in the windows. The door, as it is, helps to frame and add context to the address. I thought it looked fine. There's drama in the contrast. I like it just as it is. The others, to me, are weak.

I'm with Meeko. Follow your own vision. Yes, you can get useful information from others, but you need to judge all input, even my input!

Note this the "Architecture, Real-Estate & Buildings" forum. This forum is more about getting vertical and horizontal lines perfectly straight and making buildings "complete", or sufficiently complete. It's more about being technically correct in order to be "artistic". In terms of technique, the comments are correct. You cut the door; you have converging lines. Were you doing an architectural photo shoot for the owner of 623 5th Avenue, your photo would be unacceptable. Even the second correction would be questionable as you didn't actually do the shoot with a tilt-shift/perspective correction lens. In another forum that's less about the genre of architectural or real estate photography, the original is a really good shot. Is it great? It has drama. Done right, this could be printed, matted, and framed, and it would look great!

Here are a couple suggestions.

Spend some time in the Met, if you haven't already. That will show you things about good composition, among other things. It will have its limitations in that you'll generally find good composition; you won't find bad composition. Generally a painter won't cut off some body part, or awkwardly tilt the image.

Read some of the books by Jay Maisel and look at his photos. A good starting point is his book, "Light Color Gesture". When he was a pro, much of what he shot was what he was contracted to do. He still shot for himself. Now, well into retirement, his view is not to go out shooting, but to take his camera with him and see what's out there.

Hope this helps!

It very much does, thank you for your feedback and for the study recommendations. I appreciate the time you all have taken to respond.

I really like the "final" image. Keep on shooting!

TO ME it's a better image once straightened. I'm not sure how I feel about the doors. But my suggestion as all that you will get here is a "It might be better if" Not a the correct answer is...

And I agree that if you had to figure everything out for yourself it would be a lot of wasted drudgery. I know from my experience that fixing keystoning can make an image better. You don't have to have a "vision" or know what you like. If you haven't considered something you might not without the input of others. It's like the first time someone suggests ending on the VIm then resolving to the I instead of just ending on the I; simple, obvious, and perfectly fitting in certain cases but not something you'd just know until you knew.

Sounds like someone has had pleasure of learning all of his "proper" music theory