Old Door

[OneArmedScissor125]

Took this shot a while ago and finally got the effect I was looking for. Is this compositionally good? I tried to put the door at the 1/3 of the photo, but wanted to leave a little space to the right. Is the dark mass at the top distracting or would the photo look odd without it? I was trying to convey a sense of age with this photo. Did I achieve it? Thanks for any comments.

[xxpinballxx]

interesting subject but think its missing something......
did you have any shots a bit farther back.....?
I think the dark on top gives it an unfinished look for lack of a better work.
Seems it should be all the way across since you really dont know what it is.
how much did you crop off? Do you have the original you can post?

[MikeM]

The dark mass is a bit strange. It definitely caught my eye before I read your comments on it. But I must say I do like the extra height to the photo which would be lost with a crop. Any detail in that shadow you can salvage?

[OneArmedScissor125]

Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel
Exposure: 0.002 sec (1/500)
Aperture: f/5
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV

This is the original image; its hard to get farther back because there is a street right behind it and cars are often parked along the curb, which would block the door from being photographed. So its a little hard to get a lot in the photo. I can always get back to this subject though, so I will experiment with it in the near future.

[mrodgers]

I feel I don't have experience enough to critique other's work, but......

First, I think you really brought out into the focus the peeling paint. So as for your question, "I was trying to convey a sense of age with this photo. Did I achieve it?" The answer is yes, especially after seeing the original.

Like was said already, the first thing I saw was the dark black smudge across the top. It was also already said that without the height, the photo would be lost, which I agree with as well.

I don't like how the door edges are lost into shadow, especially the door knob and lock. I really want to see the door knob and lock.

I don't know what is on the left side of the door, but in the original, I see a large area of brick revealed behind the peeled paint. Looking at the processed image again, I want to see that revealed brick in more detail. It is washed out with shadow with the processing. Though, in this orientation, showing more to the right of the door for that brick area wouldn't work.

To fix the black smudge on top with the loss of height for the photo, could it have been shot in "landscape orientation" (is that what you would call it in photography terms? I am thinking in printer orientation terms there.) If there was nothing distracting off to the left, then that possibly could compensate for loss of height if you cropped off the awning above the door. It would also allow more of the brick on the right to be shown cropping only that window frame out.

Anyone, feel free to critique my critique . Composition wise, would flipping the shot orientation 90 degrees take focus away from the door if that was possible?

A nice job on creating the "old" look you were going for, regardless of what I said up there.

[OneArmedScissor125]

@ mrodgers: Thanks for the critique. To the left of the building is a window. I didn't even think about the door knob and lock. When I get the time to reshoot this I will try a landscape orientation. I tried flipping the photo horizontally, but I found it hard to keep my eyes in the frame. I'll also work on the door knob and lock in post work. Thanks to everybody for all the advice, it is really helpful.