Composition course?


so in short, look through the gallery and see which 1 suit my style then learn from the picture?
No exactly, you look at the works from great masters, carefully study what is in there and why it works, once you understand it, you can apply the same principles in the photos you want to shoot, not just copy blindly.
 

i saw this picture which is nice.... is it anything that called front panning?

6002228726_e220718b70_z.jpg


also for this picture, is it using ND10 with flash?

5835770767_41bb2b9053_z.jpg
 

i saw this picture which is nice.... is it anything that called front panning?
Photoshopping. There is a way creating the effects around the girl's head when the shutter speed is slower: turn the zoom ring. But that would effect the entire picture, whereby the effects increases towards the corners. Here the seats are still sharp, so it's a partially applied Photoshop effect.

also for this picture, is it using ND10 with flash?
The ND10 would affect the entire exposure, it does not work selective. Also: it's bright daylight with harsh sun around noon (see the shadows?). If you use and ND10 the lengthen the exposure at first all guys have to freeze for this period. Secondly, to light the guys you'll need to increase flash power by the same amount that your ND10 cuts down light. What's the point? Picture looks simply over-processed to me.

But that's not the point of composition, right? So using these 2 pics: elaborate a bit what and why it catches your eye. Your mind does something already on subconscious level, you need to become aware of it and use it. Plus: add more details to look out for.
 

Octarine said:
Photoshopping. There is a way creating the effects around the girl's head when the shutter speed is slower: turn the zoom ring. But that would effect the entire picture, whereby the effects increases towards the corners. Here the seats are still sharp, so it's a partially applied Photoshop effect.

The ND10 would affect the entire exposure, it does not work selective. Also: it's bright daylight with harsh sun around noon (see the shadows?). If you use and ND10 the lengthen the exposure at first all guys have to freeze for this period. Secondly, to light the guys you'll need to increase flash power by the same amount that your ND10 cuts down light. What's the point? Picture looks simply over-processed to me.

But that's not the point of composition, right? So using these 2 pics: elaborate a bit what and why it catches your eye. Your mind does something already on subconscious level, you need to become aware of it and use it. Plus: add more details to look out for.

I like the background and the subject. I always try to take these type of pictures, either the background is over exposed or the subject is underexposed.
 

i saw this picture which is nice.... is it anything that called front panning?

6002228726_e220718b70_z.jpg


also for this picture, is it using ND10 with flash?

5835770767_41bb2b9053_z.jpg

Octarine has answered your question for the first picture.

It's hard to tell what has gone on in the second, my guess is a lot of over-aggressive shadow/highlights recovery has transpired. You can see the haloes around the shadows, and the sky is patchy with a lot of banding... Not a pretty picture imho, and one that I'd dump and try to resolve with fill flash or more proper layering to obtain the necessary details (the latter needs a lot of work in this case).

From the questions you are asking here, my general advice is to start from the ground. You don't run before you walk... You could grab a book on the basics of photography, and a lot of the things that you are asking about, once you understand the basics, are not hard to guess. I don't think uncle catchlights meant to start grabbing pictures that you like and asking how to do them; that is fine, but it comes later, after you understand the basics. To put it into perspective, how does one learn math? Does it start from learning the numbers, basic operations, or does it start with trying to make head of tail of the equations in the solution to a math problem? If you do not even know what addition, subtraction, division, multiplication are, how do you make head or tail of the solutions? The technicalities of photography are in some ways not that far off from a maths problem, it is dead, and you have a set of tools to reach your answer. You have a vision in your head - that is the maths problem; the basics of lighting, understanding of light, ISO, aperture, etc; are the tools which help you solve the problem to achieve your vision.

Cheers.
 

Photoshopping. There is a way creating the effects around the girl's head when the shutter speed is slower: turn the zoom ring. But that would effect the entire picture, whereby the effects increases towards the corners. Here the seats are still sharp, so it's a partially applied Photoshop effect.


The ND10 would affect the entire exposure, it does not work selective. Also: it's bright daylight with harsh sun around noon (see the shadows?). If you use and ND10 the lengthen the exposure at first all guys have to freeze for this period. Secondly, to light the guys you'll need to increase flash power by the same amount that your ND10 cuts down light. What's the point? Picture looks simply over-processed to me.

But that's not the point of composition, right? So using these 2 pics: elaborate a bit what and why it catches your eye. Your mind does something already on subconscious level, you need to become aware of it and use it. Plus: add more details to look out for.

the 1st picture, i thought it's due to the movement of the car, then at a slower shutter speed, this can be achieved ma? the left side of the car seat, has a bit of blur, most prob due to hand shake.
 

Octarine has answered your question for the first picture.

It's hard to tell what has gone on in the second, my guess is a lot of over-aggressive shadow/highlights recovery has transpired. You can see the haloes around the shadows, and the sky is patchy with a lot of banding... Not a pretty picture imho, and one that I'd dump and try to resolve with fill flash or more proper layering to obtain the necessary details (the latter needs a lot of work in this case).

From the questions you are asking here, my general advice is to start from the ground. You don't run before you walk... You could grab a book on the basics of photography, and a lot of the things that you are asking about, once you understand the basics, are not hard to guess. I don't think uncle catchlights meant to start grabbing pictures that you like and asking how to do them; that is fine, but it comes later, after you understand the basics. To put it into perspective, how does one learn math? Does it start from learning the numbers, basic operations, or does it start with trying to make head of tail of the equations in the solution to a math problem? If you do not even know what addition, subtraction, division, multiplication are, how do you make head or tail of the solutions? The technicalities of photography are in some ways not that far off from a maths problem, it is dead, and you have a set of tools to reach your answer. You have a vision in your head - that is the maths problem; the basics of lighting, understanding of light, ISO, aperture, etc; are the tools which help you solve the problem to achieve your vision.

Cheers.

guess i am not detailed enough to catch all those stuff.
the 2nd picture also has a very strong shadow, therefore a few speedlight will remove them.
plus the halo u have stated, which made it not that great after PP.
 

You are asking how composition works in these two photos? Or how to get the effects of these two photo?

Yes, don't run if you've not learn how to walk properly.

Stick to working on compostion now.
 

rvf79 said:
i saw this picture which is nice.... is it anything that called front panning?

also for this picture, is it using ND10 with flash?

U are digressing from composition with your above question.

Composition is NOT about using filters, panning or Photoshop. These are extra toppings on your ice cream.

Composition is about directing someone's eyes to see the pic that u want to show. It's NOT about special effects.

For example, the 2nd pic, u see a group of guys standing in a V shape? This is composition. Why? Coz the photographer use lines and angles to direct your eyes to see this group of guys on a bridge. Yr eyes will see this V shape first, then go on to see the background bridge.

I no expert. I also learning. And michael Freeman book "photographer's eye" is a v good book on composition.
 

the 1st picture, i thought it's due to the movement of the car, then at a slower shutter speed, this can be achieved ma? the left side of the car seat, has a bit of blur, most prob due to hand shake.
Please observe thoroughly. If the blur part in pic #1 were due to car movement, then why are all the streaks centered at her head? A moving car would cause parallel streaks of blur in the entire background while the foreground is sharp. But here you can see that only the top left corner, the tree trunk, shows these streaks. The lower left, the car seats, are in focus and sharp.
Back to composition, which has little to do with these special effects. Observe the positioning of the camera, how the girl is photographed, how it 'works' for you.. what do you perceive from this arrangement? - Answer for yourself (I'm not gonna give you short cuts here), and you got another small step towards understanding composition.
 

one picture i had took 2 weeks ago
pls comment. :)

384958_10150445632453120_534353119_8627989_25607862_n.jpg

i wun comment about technique. just comment about composition. i am sure u can think of a better composition then this. this looks very much like a snapshot.
 

i saw this picture which is nice.... is it anything that called front panning?

6002228726_e220718b70_z.jpg


also for this picture, is it using ND10 with flash?

5835770767_41bb2b9053_z.jpg
#1 is photoshopped,

as the zoom effect does not affected the car seats and the subject legs,
I do not find this photo pleasing as the distortion of her legs, become more prominent then her face.

#2, is like HDR thingy, leading lines works, but the effect is redundant.

as other members already mentioned, effects are like icing on the cake, if the cake is not nice, don't waste the whip cream.
 

I believe #1, photographer is on front passenger seat. Otherwise, won't be able to take model's lower leg as bonet will block them.
 

one picture i had took 2 weeks ago
pls comment. :)

384958_10150445632453120_534353119_8627989_25607862_n.jpg

too tight for me.

ease the buildings at the top right corner, can try to place the bridge to the bottom right. in this way it will lead the viewer's eyes to the buildings on the other end.

oh ya, the 1/3 rule too. try giving 2/3 of the upper frame to the buildings/sky and the remaining 1/3 for the water.
 

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From my view, shoot more & upload to your PC. Study the pictures & improve from there, each photographer has their own liking.
 

tecnica said:
too tight for me.

ease the buildings at the top right corner, can try to place the bridge to the bottom right. in this way it will lead the viewer's eyes to the buildings on the other end.

oh ya, the 1/3 rule too. try giving 2/3 of the upper frame to the buildings/sky and the remaining 1/3 for the water.

Thanks bro. Noted the comments.