(Resized) Silhouettes in Trafalgar Square

[SuzieQ]

Thanks Mad Aussie for help in resizing! I found a simple website called freeresizer.com- I think its worked..here's hoping.

Anyway, Im still learning and practising as much as possible since buying my first DSLR. For this picture I was toying around with silhouettes and shutter speeds in Trafalgar Square.

Thanks for any feedback!

[AcadieLibre]

I think your over blown in the lower left corner. It is unfortunate the bird is blurred makes it distracting. I love the statue, nice shot of it, just pay more attention to where the bright areas are so they do not distract. For the bird issue, either use a higher f/stop and slower shutter speed, or higher iso, lower f/stop and a higher shutter speed. If you can burn the lower left bright area.

Overall though I must say a nice try. Another idea is to bracket shots your trying for the first few times. A good silhouette is harder than it looks, you might also let the sun set below the horizon, where all you get is a orange/red blow, great time for those types of shots. As always just my worth.

[SuzieQ]

Thats great, thanks for the advice! Now that you mention it I agree with you about the time of day but quite like the water being frozen but the bird slightly blurred...Maybe I'll go back though and play around a bit more from what you've said...am I right in thinking that you meant that the bird and water should either both be frozen or both be blurred?

[AcadieLibre]

If you want the water and bird both frozen you need a faster shutter speed. With a longer shutter speed the water will have that soft look and the bird should not even appear in the photo, to me the bird is either captured sharply or you leave the exposure long enough that is just doesn't appear.

[Mad Aussie]

As AL says himself ... photography is subjective. My 'What makes a great photo' thread furthers that truth.

Having said that, I love the bird as it is. Take it out and we are left with a statue and the top of a fountain ... and a lot of sky. For me at least, the bird adds something. I think the bird has enough blur to make it look purposely done. If you'd sped up the shutter and got an almost clear shot then it would look bad to me.

Also I don't agree the sky is blown out too much in this case as it shows the sun (misty as it is) and I think that contributes.

I think this one of those photos that we all think could be done better in some way. I'd like to see more fountain for instance. And yes, if that's a setting sun then a bit later in the day would make the photo come alive with colour. But then we often see that look in photos so it's nice to see something like this sometimes also.

Seems AL's tastes and mine are vastly different. We'd be great on a shoot together. Both shooting the same stuff totally differently. I'd love it.

AL ... if you're ever in Aussie ...

[SuzieQ]

To be honest...I also like the bird the way it is. I think if the shutter speed were any faster it would just be a picture of 3 things all frozen just a little bit too perfectly in time.

I decided to leave out the base of the fountain itself so that only the water was showing...I felt there was enough black in the composition already. I see what you mean though Mad Aussie..I wish there was perhaps a little more fountain to my fountain :-)

Finally, for me, the jury is still out on whether the sun is too bright or not....it would be interesting to hear what others thought as you guys have such different opinions. I'm definitely going to try the shot again in the near future...maybe I'll upload for comparison!

Thanks again to you both for your comments so far

[kiley9806]

this is a fun shot - great for practice! i like the angle & sharpness of the statue & i actually enjoy the blur on the bird, making for some movement in the shot. i find the water is a distraction imo, and would prefer to either have it not in the shot at all, or caught from another angle, where the base of the fountain would be visible, so its not some cut off burst of water in the sky... but it does add to the compostion,and i think it might look too bare without it at all...