The Image Shredder

superflyninja

eoglyn wrote: »

Apologies for the wall of text from yesterday.

I deleted it, and i'll start another thread about some of the issues that it has raised for myself.

What you said got my mind racing, and it came out like projectile word vomit, it really was more about my current thinking about my own work than anything you put up. I am trying to stimulate discussion, get feedback about it, but it seems it derailed the thread a bit.

I have no desire to make anyone the other side of a keyboard feel bad about themselves or their work, everything i post here in this thread is entirely intended in the spirit of co-operation and mutual betterment.

It sounded to me, probably wrongly, like you were throwing your hands up and walking away because there was so much good stuff out there on 500px and the like because this one image doesn't quite reach the standard that you are viewing at the top there. I was trying to encourage you that you shouldn't. I promise to keep my responses brief from now on.

ah no need to delete the text! What I got wound up on was thinking that you and other people thought that I couldn't take criticism, which wasn't my intent. (Now that is a sentence). I had no problem though with most of what you said after that. I wasnt upset or anything, no hassle there
To clarify a bit on my 500px and amazing shots/higher bar comment though. I was talking more about the setting of the photos. Its standard now for me to see photos from the most far flung exotic places daily posted by peers on 500px for example. So its harder to make an impact IMO. One really has to nail the composition and the technical aspects to give the photo enough clout to make a solid impression (to offset the possibly familiar subject matter). Which i guess is the point of CC/shredding anyway, to identify areas to improve a shot on. So I guess Ive talked myself out of 500px being an issue lol.

Lyaiera

First off, it looks awful in line in the thread, whatever flickr has done to it in resizing it has messed it around. You definitely need to look at it via the flickr link.

The most immediate thing that strikes me is the contrast between the fisher and the darkness behind him. It's quite striking but it's too distracting. I can see why you'd want to make him stand out but it's a rather jarring effect to go from the such darkness around his upper body to his body being extremely bright. I'd prefer it if the darkness was more exposed while his body was slightly less exposed, the contrast is just a little off.

And that brings me onto the second point where I think the clarity (don't know if you used that setting) of the surrounding rocks is too strong, it's a distraction from the focal point of the man fishing. You've tried to isolate the fisher with the exposure levels but the focus is too broad and deep to give real distinction to him.

And because of all that the crop seems wrong to me, it's giving too much emphasis to the landscape and not enough to the man, who is interesting enough in his own right. There's too much dead space, despite what is theoretically an interesting scene. You've obviously given a lot of consideration to a the movement of the fishing line, and that has in turn meant giving more space to the rest of the scene to try and fulfill compositional rules, but the result is that the the image isn't focused enough. I'd prefer a tighter crop, leaving the compositional rules based solely on the man, while leaving the fishing line as a secondary aspect that doesn't need to fully align to any thirds. The movement in it is enough to allow it to fall outside those ideas.

Overall I think you've taken a quite interesting picture, there's definitely something there, the subject and scene are excellent. However your post-processing and cropping has let the image down. I'd have gone a different direction with my PP.

eoglyn

Thanks dgk and lyaiera for some very detailed and very valid points. Very little there I would contradict. Thankfully some of the points might be addressed through revisiting post.

For me, it was an interesting scene and an interesting subject but I struggled with it after getting the right crop, etc., I think dgk is right in that the scene is too busy. Maybe using lyaiera's suggestions I might improve it. I still think it is a nice image, certainly a nice memory but it's not going to hold anyone else's interest for too long.

I was using a 135mm lens and was a good distance away, I didn't get to talk to the man, as he seemed in concentration, I nodded at him and the camera and he nodded back and went back to doing what he was doing.

Any other shredding comments welcome.

Lyaiera

Landlord by mrendatious1, on Flickr

superflyninja

@eoglyn
Id broadly agree with the comments about the contrast and exposure. For me though I kinda want to see where the fisherman is casting his line. Change of position might not have been possible but that was the first thing that struck me was Id prefer a shot taken more to his back, pointing down river a little.

@Lyaiera
I really like the texture of the shot, the top of the chair in particular. Its a bit of an odd one. The composition doesnt work for me but Im finding it hard to point out why.Maybe if the table on the right wasnt in shot it would be better. Its messy(particularly the spar logo) and takes away from the David Lynch style look of the thing!
Its very atmospheric and claustrophobic, I love the way the lines point to the darkness and the quirky angle but its feels a bit unbalanced. Apologies, Im struggling to form sentences today

Tiriel

One to shred - have at it!