Composition ?

[Saltairdigital]

Two more shots from Butchart Gardens. I am going to the TandE school (trial and error) and would like any comments re: composition, pp to help me pass to the next level. I do travel writing and having good, no, great photos is a must. My husband is the real camera guy but sometimes learning from a husband makes your eyes cross.

[Marko]

I like both of these compositions - nothing to complain about composition wise. You are guiding our eyes with the curves and pathways - nice.

[Mad Aussie]

I gotta go with Marko on this one ... the comps are very good as they are.

Maybe in the 2nd shot you could have avoided those 3 very blurred elements in the lower left foreground. The similar elements on the right do the job of providing depth to the photo without those 3 being a distraction. Just a small point that might strengthen the composition a little I think. Maybe.

[Iguanasan]

There's a lot going on in these images. So many colours and so many things to look at I too like the composition and MA makes a good point about the foreground elements on the bottom left of shot #2.

[twinkle_turnip]

If I may be so bold to jump in and post a few comments before I have earned any creditability on this forum (this is my first post) .....

When I was in College (round 1) studying fine art and digital reproduction, I took a color photography class. My photographs received a lot of praise and excellent positive feedback early on, but towered the middle of the semester I noticed that even my eyes were getting a bit heavy during my slide presentation.

Upon final critique my teacher took a stack of my slides, rotated a few 90 degrees, and placed them on the light table. All of them were in perfect registration. For an entire semester I took the exact same photograph over and over.

The compositions were mathematically and aesthetically "perfect", but this perfection was the flaw and made the whole turn stale and boring.

I guess what I am saying is that there is only so much you can do with the compositional conventions which we all read about ad nauseum. Composition is important (and should always be intentional) but try not to limit yourself too much to the "rules". One photographer somewhere said, "learn and confidant with [the rule of thirds], and then immediately forget it" - forgetting is, however, easier said than done, and I often find myself framing the same old static composition I did 10 years years earlier in college. god i'm getting old....

[Grant]

To buttress what Turnip wrote.

Quoting from Photography for the Joy of It making reference to rules in general and rules of thirds of thirds in particular.


“In artistic matters you should consider principles thoughtfully, but you should regard formulas with a healthy amount of distrust. A principle can guide you. A formula may enslave you.”