Practicing leading lines/ rule of thirds. CC please?

[DesertBell]

Hi! I went to a historic park today and practiced my composition today. Most of what I got was utter carp, but these few didn't entirely disappoint. No pp unless otherwise stated. I had a much easier time with leading lines, I think, than the rule of thirds; everything I thought I had was off when I got them home.

I think I would have like this one better if the statue had been more to the right. This was was cropped (There was a streetlight in it) and the color was adjusted slightly.

This was a personal victory; about a week before I got my DSLR I was at the same park with my p&s and saw a different spider. I tried to get a shot of it, but the camera would NOT focus on it, even in macro mode. Victory!

 

[DesertBell]

That bad, eh?

 

[DVC Jen]

Hi Desertbell.


Are you doing the leading lines/rule of 3rds thing for Unit 2 of NYIP? If so here are a few of the shots I took for that same assignment.

Leading Lines

-this one was actually taken for Unit 1 - but my instructor mentioned it would have been perfect for the Unit 2 assignment.

On the leading lines - make sure the lines are leading your eye to a clear and defined subject.

Here are some for the rule of thirds...

You seem to have the basic idea down for the rule of thirds - just keep going, practicing, studying other peoples work - that is some of the best way to learn.

But most importantly - HAVE FUN!

 

[AndrewWG]

Alright, I'll take a stab at them. From what I see, your leading lines are just fine. However, a leading line is a leading line because it leads the eye to a subject. In those top two pics, there is not subject that my eye is being led to. It doesn't have to be much of a subject, but there has to be something that you are being led to.

Rule of thirds usually baffles me because I don't think it is necessary. The first one that you have of the statue is nice, but as you say, it should be a bit more to the right. Also, as for my personal preference, I would rather see the front of the statue, rather than the horse's behind. The other one that is nice is the one with the sign and the water. This is fine by my rather untrained eye. The only thing that would have made it more interesting would have been the presence of geese and ducks, but you can't control mother nature.

Keep up the practice on these. You have the right idea, that's for sure. One thing to remember is that with a DSLR (well, at least with mine) the area that you see in the viewfinder is smaller than the actual area that is being photographed. You have to find out what sides of the pic are being cut out in the viewdinder. On mine, the left hand side and top will show more in the pic than I saw in the viewfinder, so you have to take that into account, especially with the rule of thirds photos.

 

[DesertBell]

Thank you SO much! I love taking pictures, but I've always been more of a snapshotter, so composition is a whole new ballgame for me. I have a really hard time looking at my photographs without bias. (Plus, I don't entirely know what to look for yet ) so feedback is appreciated a LOT.

I am not doing the NYIP course, although I would love to. My dh would have a heart attack at that price point though. Possibly, when I've exhausted all the classes at our local community college, I can talk him into it. I have my first photo class starting in the 23rd, and a photoshop class starting in Nov. Then I have a couple more classes that I plan to take in the spring. At the moment, though, I am trying to learn as much as I can on my own.

Jen, your photos are amazing. The second one is my favorite, I think, but I think they are all really beautiful.

Leading lines leading into something. . . That makes sense, and would explain the feeling of something missing from those pics. I was thinking I should have "used" my daughter- had her leaning against the last tree or something. I want to go back in the evening sometime and take sunset pictures of the statue, so maybe I'll drag her back with me.

Which of the two water/ sign pics was the better one?

Thank you SO much for the constructive criticism. I really want to learn, and I can't get better without knowing what I'm doing wrong.

 

[DVC Jen]

thanks for your kind comments. I have learned a lot from this forum, the daily photo community I belong to, and really just practicing and practicing and practicing some more. I still have a long way to go - but can notice improvement from when I first started.

I like the second water photo the best. Have you thought about cropping it differently? Maybe cropping it in more of a portrait (vertical) style with the waterfall feature being more at the bottom of the frame with the trees above it in the frame - and maybe zooming out a bit so it is wider- yet still vertical?

The thing that helped me the most was to think of the frame as a tic tac toe board and the intersecting areas being where you want the subject of the photo to be. OR ignore those intersections and instead have the frame divided into thirds - top, middle and bottom and have your subject on one of the lines either the top or bottom line - depending on the subject of course.

I envy you being able to take classes at a community college. I don't have the flexibility with my time nor do any of the closer community colleges have classes that I am interested in. So NYIP has been great for me - very flexible with my time.

Good luck with your classes - I bet the photoshop one will be a lot of fun. I can't wait to see your future photos.

 

[DesertBell]

Thank you! I am really excited about both the classes and the ones coming up in the spring- a creative photoshop class, a portraiture class, "Photographing the Rodeo" and "Photographing desert Landscape". Oh, and "Photography in public places". I plan to be busy next year lol.

I have been playing around with cropping that photo to a vertical, but I can't do it with out cutting out the sign. Is that what you meant? The best I can get with the sign and the water feature was a square.

 

[AndrewWG]

I sort of liked the first water pic the best, but then in looking at them some more, I like the second one better. The water feature is better and it does seem to have some ducks in it. I'm a sucker for water fowl! Just kidding.

 

[DesertBell]

Showing their opinion of my photog skills:

There ya go. Waterfowl

Incidentally, don't trust ducks OR geese. They'll turn on you the second you run out of popcorn. Before they put the signs up in our parks, we used to take the kids to feed the ducks. The last time, they got EXTREMELY aggressive the second we ran out of food and literally chased us out of the park. I was pregnant, carrying a two year old in one arm and a three year old in the other (My dd and my dn) running as fast as I could with an army of waterfowl (There must have been at least 50) chasing us and the old people on the benches laughing hysterically.

 

[jann1033]

Also, as for my personal preference, I would rather see the front of the statue, rather than the horse's behind. .

yeah it's a dangerous place to be especially when when it's tail is up (Tail up= dooky is coming)
the mutli-quote never works for me so love the horse photo jen, very pastorial and calming
as far as the rule of thirds, at least my camera i need to crop to get it to 8x10 ( i think mine is a 4:6 ratio as if comes from the camera )so it's better to try to be a little off since you are going to have to crop anyway then do the final crop in editing and you can be right there. if you get it exact and then crop you won't be right in the final photo...don't know what camera you have but the 40d is set up so the focus points are set up on the rule of thirds...or so i have heard
i'm trying to find (unsuccessfully so far) directions for a neat little crop tool i made...you make a mat and hold it up to your eye level and it shows you what zoom to use( depending on how yoru arm is bent or straight) and also lets you see what the final photo looks like( but it's based on the dreaded math so i have to find article to get the right dimensions) you can buy them though and lots of time they have the rule of thirds, golden rule etc guidelines superimposed on them...i've seen them in art supply stores for like $10

 

[DVC Jen]

I agree with Janet - shoot wide and crop. Cropping is your friend. OK OK - so cropping is MY friend... but I share.

Heck there are times I crop one tiny little thing out of a photo. It is not always ideal - but well - that is real life - right?