why is this boring?

it's one of the first shots i ever took with the 40D

and i quite like the reflection, the sky is a little blah, but .............

I'm new so take this with a pinch of salt....... to me the focus point is the main boat and the reflection of that boat, with both dead centre it looks mechanical and dull, rule of thirds could help a lot here, also it looks a little cramped for space, i would have like to see more to the right especially if their is nothing to the right.

The blue on the boats is so over saturated it's distracting (to me anyway).

KarlosDaJackal wrote in post #6028115
I'm new so take this with a pinch of salt....... to me the focus point is the main boat and the reflection of that boat, with both dead centre it looks mechanical and dull, rule of thirds could help a lot here, also it looks a little cramped for space, i would have like to see more to the right especially if their is nothing to the right.

Hi Karlos, i haven't heard your latest hit
all saltt fully accepted
its a london mooring so there are more boats to the left and right.
feel free to tinker with the pic to explain how you would have used the rule of thirds, 'cos i tend to struggle with my composition.

Phil Light wrote in post #6028116
The blue on the boats is so over saturated it's distracting (to me anyway).

Hi Phil

this is the unlightroomed version

thank you both for you C+C

Just very simply with your lightroom version, it involved cropping of the left so it looked like this.

Its a very minor change but I think it helps so if you imagine the image is split in 3 vertical slices, now the mast and reflection of the main mast marks the transition from slice 1 to slice 2, and the other boat is line up similar betwen slice 2 and 3.

Their are horizontal slices also and they nicely match the cross on the mast also. Its and exercise in symmetry

KarlosDaJackal wrote in post #6028269
Just very simply with your lightroom version, it involved cropping of the left so it looked like this.

Its a very minor change but I think it helps so if you imagine the image is split in 3 vertical slices, now the mast and reflection of the main mast marks the transition from slice 1 to slice 2, and the other boat is line up similar betwen slice 2 and 3.

Their are horizontal slices also and they nicely match the cross on the mast also. Its and exercise in symmetry

aaaaah (penny finally drops)

i thought i had the 3rds covered buy the 3 boats, but i see what you mean by the flow of the eye across the scene now.

cool

tyvm

I'm forever having to crop bits of my images to get that working. myself

I use the gimp as an image editor and when you use the rectangle selection tool, you can turn on the "rule of thirds" grid option, so it will show you these lines. You can also set an aspect ratio on the selection so you can set it to say 6:4 (or 4:6 for portraits) or 10:8 (8:10 for portraits) so when you go to print out nothing will get chopped of by the printer.

Whatever software you use to edit can probably do the same things also. Its a life saver.

aye

light room has that

i was just missing the whole vibe completely

A more extreme crop:
_

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I think the main problem here is that its too cluttered. Too much going on with the background. You could try getting closer and use the widest aperture possible to isolate the main subject.

My first thought was clutter so I'm inclined to agree with conkeroo

I found a composition that I liked in the image but I'm not sure others will agree

there is no obvious subject. It looks like a test shot before the subject came along. Your eye darts around the image looking for something to focus on, when there is nothing...

andrew748 wrote in post #6028068
it's one of the first shots i ever took with the 40D

and i quite like the reflection, the sky is a little blah, but .............

ty

In the centre of your frame there is just mess. And the saturation on the boats looks fake against the drab sky. There's no structure to the shot to lead your eye around it.