Buildings on the river

[paul.r.w]

Took a few shots of different buildings from the river yesterday. Be interested for your comments.


City Hall. A look into Ken's mind?


Last house standing. Somethings not straight, me probably.


Historical boozer. The Mayflower was brought back here and broken up and it's timbers used in the original pub. You can just make out the weather vane is a model of the Mayflower ship.

[Bearface]

Re: Buildings on the river

Took a few shots of different buildings from the river yesterday. Be interested for your comments.


City Hall. A look into Ken's mind?


Last house standing. Somethings not straight, me probably.


Historical boozer. The Mayflower was brought back here and broken up and it's timbers used in the original pub. You can just make out the weather vane is a model of the Mayflower ship.

Hi Paul,

Here's some honest feedback. I'm being a tad harsh, but hopefully you'll take it as constructive criticism

The locations and buildings are all very interesting in their own ways, however it strikes me that you haven't given anything of yourself to the images themselves, therefore they're nothing more than visual records (snapshots) of the scenes. In fact, I got more out of the accompanying explanations than I did the pictures themselves which basically confirms that they didn't draw me in.

In each case the shots are composed "square-on" and the subjects themselves are placed right in the centre of the frame. Combine this with the flat lighting and lifeless skies and you have a recipe for mediocrity, as I think you'll agree. If you want that "wow" factor, you have to modify your approach.

When taking shots such as these, I'd suggest you consider your compositions in a 3D way, so that when it image is finally printed or displayed, people will get a sense of the depth of a given scene, and therefore they'll come closer to appreciating what it was you experienced. This means having some foreground interest leading you through to the subject itself, or zooming in to capture interesting detail, or getting in close and using a wide angle lens to distort certain elements and add some visual drama to the shot.

Digital images are often a little flat-looking straight from the camera, and in this case you had a pretty dull day to contend with, which didn't help. When you have shots such as these, it's often a good idea to boost contrast (using levels or curves......NOT the brightness/contrast slider ) and possibly even the saturation to bring out the colours and add some pazazz and vibrancy to the scene. You can also consider cropping the shot to fill the frame more effectively or to balance the composition a little. Oh, and if you're feeling really brave, you can add a more interesting sky to replace the flat, white sheet that we often have to suffer in the UK. (It's worth going out and just photographing nice skies on a sunny day for that very purpose...).

Well, you did ask. Hopefully some of what I've said will be of use to you

[paul.r.w]

Re: Buildings on the river

I did ask and I'm very grateful for your reply, that's what I'm here for. I've always considered myself as a bit of a "snapper".

I cropped the one of City Hall to try and show some of the reflections but also the inside of the building, I consider cropping it so that it just showed the glass.

I quite like the other two but that's probably because I know the area and as you say my explainations were better than the pictures.

My compostion does leave a lot to be desired and it's something I'm trying to work on, my only excuse this time is that I was on a boat just snapping away. Nothing unusual there.

[Ian]

Re: Buildings on the river

I did ask and I'm very grateful for your reply, that's what I'm here for. I've always considered myself as a bit of a "snapper".

I cropped the one of City Hall to try and show some of the reflections but also the inside of the building, I consider cropping it so that it just showed the glass.

I quite like the other two but that's probably because I know the area and as you say my explainations were better than the pictures.

My compostion does leave a lot to be desired and it's something I'm trying to work on, my only excuse this time is that I was on a boat just snapping away. Nothing unusual there.

We all started out as snappers Without going out there and taking pictures you can't improve. Cropping can help a lot and eventually you can visually 'crop' in the viewfinder or on the screen and it all becomes second nature.

Ian

[coupekid]

Re: Buildings on the river

I quite like the other two but that's probably because I know the area and as you say my explainations were better than the pictures.

When you say you know the area Paul, does this mean you live there, i.e are you able to revisit?

The reason I ask is because the City Hall shot has so much potential with different lighting. At the moment the sky is that horrible flat white, however, I am betting that if you revisit at sunrise/set you would get an awesome shot with different reflections and light bouncing off all that glass.

I actually like the simplicity of the second shot, and I like the crop, but it looks like you were able to get a lot closer, so why not take another shot whilst standing on the beach (?) and looking up to get a more dramatic composition?

[paul.r.w]

Re: Buildings on the river

Yes I intend to have a wander around the area so that I can think about things a bit more. I was on a sight seeing boat and I don't think they wanted to stop while I set up my shot. Still it's given me a few ideas.