Student Work: Has Doubts.

Does it work?

Ghita sent me this photo with doubts about whether I thought it was a good photo or not. As usual, i like to let my fellow photographers read what was sent to me. The reason being that we all at some point have doubt about our work, or have asked themselves similar questions. Here’s the question as it was sen to me:

“Hi Joe,

I’m a Danish hobbyist photographer following your blog. I send you a photo, I took a few evenings ago in my local area.

I’m quite happy about it, but nevertheless have some doubts about the light and the composition. It’s edited in Lightroom. I increased the clarity a bit and lightened the shadows. It now looks pretty much as I saw it.

But how does it work? Is it too dark? Is it too light? What about the balance between the amount of sky and water? And the composition? I had to be quick, because the boat went rather fast.

Ghita,

First of all, let’s talk about the overall composition. It’s a really nice, well balanced and the horizon line is straight (harder than you might think). I love the fact that you showed just the important part of the sky that has the color. You’ve created a really nice area of Negative Space between the bottom of the sky and the tops of the buildings. I always tell people to look at what’s the most important part of your image, the information above or below the horizon line. In this example, the information below is filled with texture, one of the basic principles of Visual Design so it will keep the viewer’s interest.

I talk about these elements both in my online class with the BPSOP, and also in my Stretching Your Frame of Mind workshops I conduct all around our perfectly round planet…Earth

So you said that you lightened the shadows, but not near enough to show any detail in the buildings. To show more detail would turn them a bad looking gray, so why not just leave them as silhouettes? They are almost at that point so they look good. All you need is the different shapes to show the different buildings, and the Negative Space and the contrast provides visual interest.

As far as the boat, you put it in just the right space, so great thinking. Eddy Adams once said, “When you get lucky be ready”. You were lucky and you were readt with a quick eye and responce.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Watch for my Workshop schedule at the top of this blog. I don’t keep them up long because they fill very fast. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB