just thinking

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Liam Diamond on November 3, 2009 at 1:18am

Hi Lorin,

From my own perspective. The are two schools of thought, one similar to your own and the other from text book photography. In the end as long as you enjoy doing it then it shouldnt matter what other people think. No matter who you are and how good you are not everyone will always like your work. I like to take a different angle on this view. If we all conformed to the percived "norm" then we would all produce the same sort of images, and if that was the case, well then, the world would be a very, very boring place.

keep smiling :)

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Permalink Reply by Jan Michael Vincent V Castillo on November 3, 2009 at 7:05am

"as long as you enjoy doing it then it shouldnt matter what other people think. No matter who you are and how good you are not everyone will always like your work".

I second that

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Permalink Reply by Michael on November 3, 2009 at 12:53pm

If you look at your photos and you got it exactly as you intended, or if you are taking photos only for yourself and you like your results then don't concern yourself with proven techniques and rules of good composition. Keep doing what you are doing and enjoy yourself.

But if you want to take the best photos that you can take then it helps to understand how photographs best communicate with people. You need to understand things like the role that perspective has on the eyes traveling into the photo ,and what will distract the viewer from seeing the photo as you intended. And the things that you can do to force the eyes to go where you want them to go and give your photos a better chance of being seen as you intended them to be seen.

I am from the school of thought that believes that it is important to know the rules even if you are going to break them. An example of that is the "rule of thirds". Once you understand the "rule of thirds" you begin to understand why some of your photos don't have the impact that you expected them to have. And by understanding the rules you have a better feel for when they should be broken.

Understanding these things will not take away your creativity or freedom of self expression. Instead it will allow you to be more creative because it will empower you by giving you the ability to control not only what is in your composition but how it is viewed.

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Permalink Reply by nathan mccreery on November 3, 2009 at 5:23pm

While I am an anti-rules of composition guy there are some questions that need to be asked by, and of, the photographer. Certainly, you are entitled to make your photograph the way you want to. The question then becomes, what makes one photograph more effective than another? That is the thing we seek to define as we discuss photographic composition. Often, as I critique photographs, I will ask the question, "have you thought about doing it this way or that way"? One reason to seek out critiques by established photographers is that you won't live long enough to make all the mistakes. If I have found that doing a photograph a certain way doesn't work very well, why would you not seek out that knowledge so that you can by pass my errors and build on what I've done? While there aren't any rules of composition, there are things that can be done to build a more effective photograph. That is the reason we can tend to be picky. Often, the difference between a sensational photograph and an average or even poorly executed photograph is relatively small and explaining it can seem to be picky. In reality good, even great, composition can be distilled down to seeing a thing in the most effective and powerful way. If I can offer a tip that is simple and will help you make quicker progress why would you not jump at the opportunity to avail yourself of that information?

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