Is 3 a charm?

[Jense]

Exposure 1/160
Aperture f/8.0
Focal Length 100 mm
ISO 200



I've spent most of the weekend reading and watching tutorials about composition, and looking at the photographs of others. With that in mind, I went back to a photo I took last week and cropped it. I would like a critique regarding my cropping ... with the 'old' photo in mind. Here is the link to that one:

Spot of color - red lights | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Of course, after everything that I am learning, I would re-take the photo entirely ... that will be the next step. For now, thanks in advance to your feedback about whether I improved the shot or not with cropping.

[windrider86]

Use your rule of thirds. Place a tic tac to grid on your image and your main focal points should land on the lines.
I totally see why you chose to photograph this as the red lights are very bold and interesting. You did a great job on the clarity.

Take a good look at your photo and try and decide what is the main focal point. For me, the windows are conflicting for attention. The bottom section is cropped too tight tho. See where the light is nearly touching the edge of the frame, the same with the right side? I'd broaden the crop on the bottom and tighten it on the top

[SwissJon]

Short answer: The shot has been improved by your crop.
Long answer: You won't be able to get a decent shot from the original photo with out some editing. Below the lights is an ugly grey wiring conduit. Opening the crop up lower will bring more of that into shot.. If you have the skills, you could clone that out without too much difficulty, but it really detacts from the shot.. I assume that's why you cropped so tightly.

I agree with Windrider on the rest.

If you're going to retake the shot, I would be tempted to do something creative with depth of field to give the photograph some depth and keep a close eye on what else you have in the shot, crop tight on the lights and if you can, try to avoid the conduits..

[LoveDSLR]

c/f from your previous post.

In this 2nd edition, there are many good composition elements. Color, symmetry, number 3 and leading lines. However, some of elements are isolated with several conflicting ones.

If you look at the whole photo, the windows as background aren't totally complementary to the lights (main subject) with that crop. There is no way you can treat the windows as main subject with the bold red lights in the foreground.

Nevertheless, it is still an improvement from the first one. I think the next step should be on how to integrate the various techniques effectively.

A tight crop would make the lights predominant using color and number 3 as your techniques. The background can be taking care of via shallower DOF, lower contrast and/or brightness.

Just my two cents.

[Jense]

Good points all around ... I appreciate your input. Now looking at the photo I can see that the windows don't really support the whole ... and are too large.

And yes, the crop is so tight at the bottom because of the horrific electrical box ... I'd have to get much better at clone editing to fix.

All in all, I think I want to try the shot again ... keeping fresh what I have learned.

Big thanks to all of you!

[LoveDSLR]

Originally Posted by Jense

Good points all around ... I appreciate your input. Now looking at the photo I can see that the windows don't really support the whole ... and are too large.

I'm thinking about leading lines. What if the lights are attached to the same wall as of the windows?

[SwissJon]

Originally Posted by Jense

Good points all around ... I appreciate your input. Now looking at the photo I can see that the windows don't really support the whole ... and are too large.

And yes, the crop is so tight at the bottom because of the horrific electrical box ... I'd have to get much better at clone editing to fix.

All in all, I think I want to try the shot again ... keeping fresh what I have learned.

Big thanks to all of you!

Please get the owners permission before making alterations to the building Cloning takes patience more than skill.

I'd be interested to see your next shot on this thread, to see what you did differently.

[Jense]

Me too SwissJohn!