Sunday Stills-Potluck With A Purpose

I’ve been away all weekend but this week while I was going through my archives and deleting pictures and editing others I realized that I really need to pay more attention to the angle I’m taking a shot from. Most of the ones I threw away were shots where I was to lazy to get off my horse and shooting at a downward angle. Some I could crop to make better but if a little care had been taken I wouldn’t have had to throw so many in the trash

Here’s what I’m talking about….I was sitting on a horse way to far above and it just takes away from the picture.

In this one I’m standing and shooting straight at the horse and rider which (to me anyway) make for much better composition (and I still could have made this better if I’d have squatted a bit lower.

The challenge this week is for you to post a couple of pictures……..one bad and one good of the same sort of subject. Do a critic of your own work.

Here is a couple of other examples of what I’m talking about.

Poor;

Better;

Laughing Orca Ranch

Personally I like the first photo much better than the second one. The second one is flat and one dimensional while the first photo is interesting with the overhead angle (an angle that most folks don’t often see of a horse an rider).

The composition of the first photo and the vertical choice also follow the Rule of Thirds, which makes for a very interesting photo where the eye can enjoy traveling around the photo….instead of just staring straight ahead, with nothing else interesting to look at, as in that second photo.

JMO,
~Lisa

November 6, 2011 at 11:14 pm

Linda

Excellent points. This is the kind of discussion that I’d like to get started!

November 7, 2011 at 9:23 am
Trapper Creek Daughter

I agree; the only thing I see “wrong” with the first photo is that it looks like the meter was on the water, and the horse and rider are slightly overexposed. A little post processing and it would be a pretty nice picture (imo).

November 12, 2011 at 10:08 pm

Cyndi (Dreaming)

Ah, but if you were off your horse to take the first shot, you wouldn’t have the lovely reflection of the horse in the water!

November 7, 2011 at 9:51 am

Linda

True……and I love the color in that shot too whereas the bottom one is rather dull.

November 7, 2011 at 11:52 am

I like both of the dog shots. I would crop the first one to bring the subject in closer.. As it is now, there is too much empty space around your subject.
For the second one, the composition of the platform bothers me, as does that empty area to the right of the tree. If only there was a shrub, flowers, or a boulder to fill in that blank space to the left of the dog, too. I would also crop in closer to give the dog more focus.
In fact, by cropping the photo at the right edge of the outside of that tree, it would give the photo a better Rule of Thirds Composition. And crop the photo to just below the dogs paws, too.

~Lisa

November 9, 2011 at 1:55 am

Jo Bryant

personally i like the perspective of the first horse shot – it is less generic than the second – and doggie shots are ALWAYS cute – who cares about the angle…hehehehehehe

November 10, 2011 at 1:02 am