Just pictures

Tomahawk

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Composition
The rule of thirds
Try and compose the picture so that the interesting parts are in the 1/3ds of the frame.
Move about if necessary..

The mast is in the left 1/3rd
The blue is on the right 1/3
The horizon is too high at nearly 1/2 of the way up

The photo would have been more balanced if you included more mast with the horizon in the lower third

Oh also unless the good folks on the Orwell have learned to water ski without a powerboat.. the horizon does need to be level
 

MikeBz

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The Rocks, 5 May 2018.
IMG-3279.jpg


IMG-3282.jpg
 

johnalison

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There is a difference between a picture of a beautiful scene and a beautiful picture of a scene.

All the pictures above are perfectly good for what they are, which is something to give pleasure, but none of them will win any prizes. However, prizes are not the point, but there is something to be learned from competions and the judgements made on the entries, something that was sometimes painfully brought home to me in the years I belonged to a camera club.

Camera club photos can suffer from a navel-gazing mentality, which is one reason I didn't continue after I moved to Essex, but there is always something to learn from one's betters. I agree that composition should be the basis for all pictures, as with art. The rule of thirds is usually a very successful way of getting started, but it is not necessary to stick to it.

A viewer, especially when confronted by a series of pictures, will not forgive gross faults, even if the viewer is no photographer herself. Crooked horizons, bits of intrusive stuff, burned-out highlights and poor colour balance, are all quick ways to get someone to lose interest. The prettier pictures above suffer from what one judge said was a typical problem, which is that they are scenes without subjects, just waiting for something to happen, which is why the beer bottles constitute the most successful photo above for me.

Digital photography is effectly cost free, so there is no excuse for anyone wanting to improve not just getting on with it. One way to judge your own pictures is to reverse them L-R and see if they still look OK. With prints we used to do this with mirrors, but photo software can easily do it, or face away from the screen and use a mirror.
 

Corribee Boy

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There's certainly a difference between a picture of a beautiful scene and a beautiful picture, but surely that's missing the point. These images will resonate with a lot of us, being windows to places we know and love - even if our boats are still stuck ashore like mine.

Even the comment that the picture has nothing going on seems wrong to me. Just the ripples and reflections are enough to give validity to the picture, and I'm sure most sailors will recognise the narrative of sitting on a mooring and happily contemplating that sort of thing.
 

johnalison

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#8 & 9 introduced the topic of photo quality, and I see no reason why this shouldn't be part of the equation. Although some people will be indifferent to it, others will feel that their own efforts don't do justice to what they were trying to express, and, phone camera or DSLR, will be seeking to make their own efforts more satisfying. I have over 150Gb of JPEGs hanging around and have probably taken more truly dreadful pictures than most of the forum put together. I like to think that a handful of gems are hiding there, though.
 

Kukri

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#8 & 9 introduced the topic of photo quality, and I see no reason why this shouldn't be part of the equation. Although some people will be indifferent to it, others will feel that their own efforts don't do justice to what they were trying to express, and, phone camera or DSLR, will be seeking to make their own efforts more satisfying. I have over 150Gb of JPEGs hanging around and have probably taken more truly dreadful pictures than most of the forum put together. I like to think that a handful of gems are hiding there, though.

Please post some.
 
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