Valierano, a skilled photographer living in Rome, sent me this photo to comment on. Here’s what he had to say:
“Hi Joe,
Valeriano.
Color comunicating ideas
Valeriano, I love the colors. There’s a lot to be said for the study of color theory, and how the different colors have a psychological effect on the viewer. For example, The blue background is calming, while orange is considered an attention grabber. Yellow is cheerful, and Red (the most powerful color of all) is stimulating, and at the same time is sexy, occasionally angry, and can sometimes imply risk-taking.
As I always sat to my online class with the PPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet, Color communicates ideas!!!
When you put these colors together in the form of lines (the most important of all the elements of visual design) and then make them move, the results can be memorable.
Ok, let’s talk about the idea itself:
One of my Personal Pearls of Wisdom is “In a perfect world, what if?” In other words, if you could go back and re-shoot this photo, what would you do different; providing you could do anything you wanted?
If I was to go back there with you, I would either create more of the buildings and lights, or lose them entirely. Right now they’re a touch distracting, mainly because the viewer might not draw a conclusion as to why they’re there and what he or she is looking at.. If you hadn’t said that you were at an amusement park, the ride in the foreground might not have been interpreted as part of the park. There’s lots of things I could conjure up that might create the same kind of effect.
If you were trying to say Amusement Park, then I might try to show more of the area. Remember that you won’t be around to explain your photo, unless you title it as a ride in an Amusement Park..not the best idea!!! I might show a little more of the environment to make it what I call a “quick read”. If your intent was just to show the ride in motion, I might pull back to see more of it and perhaps one or two shutter speeds faster as well as different exposures. Maybe a little brighter sky.
Overall, I would say that it’s an interesting image to look at, and because of all the things going on, the viewer will stick around longer…exactly what we want!!!!
Thanks for sending it to AskjoeB@gmail.com
Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com , check out my 2012 workshop schedule at the top of this blog and come shoot color with me sometime.
JoeB
Hi Joe,
thanks for the critique.
“In a perfect world, what if”?
If I could get the opportunity to shoot this subject again, I would put more emphasis on the shape of the spinning cabin. I couldn’t notice this at that time, but to me it’s pretty interesting cause it looks like the top of a palm tree. Therefore I would had worked the subject a little more —as you’ve just suggested, probably getting a complete different shot from this one.
Thanks again,
Valeriano.
I agree.
JoeB