Composition

[Pea-n-Me]

As for the St Thomas picture, yes, it was taken from behind glass on Deck 9 of the Disney Magic. I suppose I should have marched my butt up one deck and taken some outside shots, but our kids were in the club and it was the first time DH and I had a few moments to ourselves. We were hanging out on a double lounger in the adults only area and didn't want to move.

I think the reason I had this picture on Photobucket is because I originally posted it on the cruise board in a thread about lifeboat drills or something. I thought it was a good example for this thread (of what not to do, LOL). Anyway, so you don't think I'm a total dolt, I went back and found a better shot from the same time. I hadn't noticed it much before, but you're right, the reflection is annoying.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

how fast do they have to be moving

i do think it's ok though as far as moving since he has room to walk for a while

jann, I love those back shots myself (and posted some of mine on Mark's thread.) I think the space with movement is mainly for objects moving side to side. I like both the second and third pictures, lots of detail and you feel like you're on the walk with them. :

 

[jann1033]

being a pain in the buns that i am , i really like the front cluster of life boats better than the full ship one, not really sure why but it's more interesting to me, it think it's the cluster of boats then the sailboats in the distance with the big boat kind of balancing them...but that's just me i don't even mine the ship cut off some, just think it might be better more cut off than just the tip cut off, like you planned it that way instead of an oopps...

i probably have some side movment photos somewhere...just got kind of off track with my rules application

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Actually, I do like your edit! Thanks, will save it.

 

[fitzperry]

jann, I love those back shots myself (and posted some of mine on Mark's thread.) I think the space with movement is mainly for objects moving side to side. I like both the second and third pictures, lots of detail and you feel like you're on the walk with them. :

I think wrt movement, you just want to allow space for the subject to move in the direction it is moving. So in this case, you wouldn't want to put them at the top of the frame, which you probably wouldn't do anyway. If they were walking toward the camera, you would avoid placing them at the bottom of the frame.

Pea-n-Me's cool cruise pictures reminded me of some shots I tried to get on a brief cruise I took a few weeks ago. Here's one that seemed like a good idea at the time, but I don't think worked out very well and I'm not sure why. Well, part of the reason I don't like it is the blown highlights, and I wish I'd used a smaller aperture so the ship would be more in focus, but something about the composition seems off too. I guess it's not well balanced. Any thoughts?

 

[barrie]

Jen - I really like your photo. My first thought when looking at it was that I wished the ship wasn't there. Maybe that's what is off to you? It seems out of scale or out of place with the rest of the photo. But all in all, I think it is quite a nice photograph.

 

[jann1033]

fitzperry did you post this someplace else or one similar? i remember i liked the colors particularly so i like it ! i wonder if the ship were less in focus if you'd like it better? does it kind of give the impression the ship is docked at their back door? less focus would give more depth maybe? i like the ship in the photo since it makes it seem vacationy but maybe not so prominent?

 

[fitzperry]

Jen - I really like your photo. My first thought when looking at it was that I wished the ship wasn't there. Maybe that's what is off to you? It seems out of scale or out of place with the rest of the photo. But all in all, I think it is quite a nice photograph.

Thanks Barrie. Maybe that is it. At the time I remember thinking that I liked the way you could see the ship off in the distance. It does seem out of proportion with the rest of the image though, especially the bench. Maybe I'll try cloning out the boat!

 

[fitzperry]

fitzperry did you post this someplace else or one similar? i remember i liked the colors particularly so i like it ! i wonder if the ship were less in focus if you'd like it better? does it kind of give the impression the ship is docked at their back door? less focus would give more depth maybe? i like the ship in the photo since it makes it seem vacationy but maybe not so prominent?

I think I must have posted it because it was already in my Photobucket album. I do like the colors (how could anyone not like the colors in the Caribbean? ) Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the boat looks roughly the same size as the bench. I hate it when you take a picture thinking that it's going to look great hanging in your house somewhere, and it just doesn't pan out, not that I have much wall space left!

 

[AndrewWG]

Jen,

That is a nice photo. The colors are great, and I can see that you are using a good eye to get the composition of a great photo. I agree that the bench may be what makes it look not as good as it could. Also, this may have been a good time for the rule of thirds since the building takes up almost half of the photo. But perhaps that isn't it either. Maybe more water in the background would have done it? I don't know. I'm no expert by any means. I would have to take it and mess in photoshop for a bit to see what I liked best I guess. I try that with a bunch of my photos and usually still don't know what is good and what isn't!

Andy

 

[ukcatfan]

You mean like this?!

I could just kick myself for not noticing that I cut off the top spire in this shot!

And like this?

At least I know that I am not the only person who has done this now. I think sometimes you get so happy with getting the exposure correct that you do not notice the composition is off until later back at the computer.

Kevin

 

[Pea-n-Me]

It does seem out of proportion with the rest of the image

That seems like a good place today - balance/imbalance.

Who's got some examples of each?

 

[kbnovak]

I'm not able to post links, but if you search for Dave Black Photography and look under "Workshop at the Ranch," the March 07 installment is an interesting read on composition. In fact, anything that Dave writes is very inspiring and informative.

Kevin

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Thanks, Kevin. Looks interesting, here's the link: http://www.daveblackphotography.com/workshop/index.htm

 

[DueyDooDah]

This is very cool. I love this kind of photo. One question though. Is the frog named Waldo? I'm looking but can't find it.

 

[fitzperry]

This is very cool. I love this kind of photo. One question though. Is the frog named Waldo? I'm looking but can't find it.

I don't know about a frog, but I see a little hidden Mickey near the center.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Is the frog named Waldo? I'm looking but can't find it.

Here's a better one of the little bugger (so happy my new camera has better zoom).

While I was looking for that, I found this, an angle we mentioned on a previous page. I think in this picture you can better tell these are cranberries...