Lakeside evening

[Darkness]

Evening genglement.

I hardly had any time during the last few weeks ... so this evening I just went to the sea to take a few pictures. Turned out to be a very nice sunset. It's quite impossible to properly capture the mood though. Anyways - I know these are too many pictures for one posting but it was quite hard for me to decide. I filled up two gigabytes in little over an hour ...

Not the most brilliant pictures out there but at least I took the camera out for a spin. And I think they're not that bad ...

01 (Yepp, they )


02


04


05


06


07


08


09


11


13


14


15


16


17


18

Cheerio.

*e* God damn I misspelt the title ...

[Steve O B Have]

4 5 13 and 15 are smashing - really nice photos.

4. stands on it's own as a really nice shot.

I'm enjoying what you have done with vanishing points. Composition wise I think you are missing your target a little. For example:

5. is a brilliant photo but it would benefit from being cropped to being symetrical i.e. crop just to the right of the first pole on the left then you would have nice clean lines going to the vanishing point at the centre.

13. I love because of the depth of field and the great contrast between the spider and the metal. Personally I would've aimed to have the spider off centre closer to the sweet spot (I'll explain in a minute).

15. is just beautiful - magic and nothing wrong with it at all!!!

I'm not sure if you are familiar with the rule of thirds and the golden mean when it comes to composition. These are two rules that photographers tend to apply not as a strict rule, as 5 can well demonstrate, but as a very good guide to general composition. Your pier shots especially would benefit from applying the golden mean rule.

What is the golden mean rule? It is essentially a ratio that when applied to an image it draws the eye automatically to the subject matter. TinTins artist Hergé was famous for using it in pretty much every single frame of his comics. The positioning comes from a mathematic ratio of 1.61 which when translated into an image looks like this:



If you repeat the point describe by the inside of the spiral (i.e. the box surrounded by the 1,2,3) to each of the 4 similar points on the page you get the 'sweet spots' for composition.

When applying this to a photo then it can help in creating a great composition and can change what is a 'snapshot' into being great photography.

Applied to a photo you get something like this - the eye is automatically drawn to the Gormley (the statue):



I think if you go the pier shots with the vanishing points on the 'sweet spot' the composition will work for you a bit more.

The other 'rule' is the rule of thirds - very simple - try to not have the horizon across the middle of your composition, aim for 1/3rd ground 2/3rds sky or the reverse 2/3rds ground 1/3rd sky. Apply that to the golden mean and you will see that the two work quite well together as the 'sweet spot' nicely separates the page into both horizontal and vertical 3rds.

I apologise if you already know all this stuff but I see real potential in your photos and just a little tweeking can make all the difference. Thanks for sharing them, I enjoyed.

[Yaric]

Nice shots! I'm betting Darkness has definitely seen and read about the ratio but I think implementing the ratio can always be tough.

Although, I have to say, with such a nice camera you're practically cheating with these nice pictures.
I borrowed my brothers top of the line Nikon once and it's almost hard to take a bad shot with such a nice machine.

Maybe one day if I ever get out of college, and that's a big maybe, lol, I'll have a real job actually be able to afford one as well.

[Steve O B Have]

Yeah - but transferring the talent to the camera is a tad unfair - I personally think you have to have the eye for interesting lines and composition. The quality of the image has a higher chance of coming out well with a good camera and a decent lens but the real talent is always going to come from the photographer.

[Darkness]

Hey,

thanks a bomb for that posting Steve, very much appreciated! I have read about that indeed, but once I'm out taking pictures it's pretty much gone. You're right though, I really should try to lay my photos out more carefully. Glad you like some of them, too.

Yaric - Personally, I wouldn't say that. An ugly motive stays ugly, even with the most expensive, super-uber-camera you can get. DSLRs do offer much more possibilities of how you can make your pictures turn out - which is mostly a blessing, sometimes however a curse. So, I can gurantee you ... someone with a cheapo camera but an eye for beautiful motives will make much nicer photos than Mr. Dull with his Mark III ...

[biotech]

They are great.

11 looks like it should in an office catalogue as one of their overpriced inspirational wall art collection.

[Samurai]

They're cracking Christian- really nice. Some really standing out, should consider getting some of them printed.

How you settling in with the D80?

Looks like that Macro lens is giving nice results- which Tamron was it again? Should be able to get one of those for the Canon...

[Darkness]

It's the Tamron SP AF 90mm 2.8 Di Makro 1:1. And as it's Tamron - there is indeed a Canon version. Quite happy with the D80. Just had it insured (including the lenses and all the stuff) - just to be sure.
Thanks for the nice words, too, Greggles

[Samurai]

Excellent, I thought there would be- I'm looking for a Macro lens after xmas I think...

Wise choice getting your gear insured- nothing worse than dropping a bit of camera equipment.

[Darkness]

True. The equipment will grow though, so I'll have to keep the insurance company informed all the time. Today I ordered a battery grip for my precious ... although I had planned not to spend anything on photo equipment this month. I am so weak minded ...