Photography: Struggle with composition
I'm never satisfied with my own compositions. Well, not always. The pictures I share with you are irial's approved in terms of composition. The thing is that, I usually struggle about that when I'm with my camera. Obviously there are days that I'm more or less inspired, or the stuff I'm actually shooting is easier for me to compose. Sometimes I think is because my slight OCD, but I'm very VERY picky with my compositions.
With my analogue camera is okey, I think about it a lot or I just have an incredible impulse of doing the photograph. But with the digital one is very different, basically because I can erase them. There's times where I come back just with 3 photos, just because I'm not satisfied at all with the whole shooting I did. It can be because of more reasons, but usually, it's the composition.
Nowadays I control myself a bit, specially when I visit new places. I try not to erase any of the photos, just in case in the computer are actually better than in the tiny screen of the camera. This photograph is a great example of this problem. At first sight, it looks okay to me. But when I look at it deeply the problems come out. The two dots at the right side or the angles not being perfectly straight. In the other hand, the textures and the lighting are beautiful. Every time I feel I have patience enough, I try to crop it, but never good enough.
This picture was shot with a Nikon D-80, a 50mm lens, f/3,5, 1/50 and probably 100 ISO. It's the back side of the MoMA, New York.
Beautiful shot. I like the changing color of the buildings as you progress through the photo. Also the little water tower.
My archive of digital photos has become quite large because I end up not deleting anything (well very little). Sometimes images I didn't like right away will catch my eye on a review later on.
I hardly look at the camera LCD in the field, mainly because it is too small for my old eyes, lol. I end up taking a couple 3 shot bursts of my subject and then depend on Lightroom to help sort out the problems. Maybe not the best way to go but it works for me. :)
Thank you very much! Maybe it's not the best way but at least is a method that is helping me to preserve some photos that at first I don't like but maybe in the pc are going to be great. As you say, many photos are good but in need of a second revision to appreciate them^^ It's better to have a very large gallery than a couple of them!
I like the lines in this photo, would prefer something chaotic: a pigeon, plane, breaking the somewhat sterile squares.
During one of my nightshifts I scrolled through hundreds of Cartier-Bressons photos: most pretty great, but most of them had broken "composition rules":
-etc
I only look if a photo " works" for me. If it doesn't, THEN I go back to rules and see how I would take a better photo next time.
Thanks for the thought provoking post!
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That's the thing that happens to me, if a photo doesn't "work" for me, I do delete it. I might have used a very conventional example, with straight lines and nothing moving, and I have to recognise that I subconsciously tend to "follow" the rules. But I try always to do as you say, put my intention at first, and if it works, try to apply any of the rules.
Cartier-bresson have incredible compositions and it's really inspiring. I try also to experiment with the elements in front of me and the focus, but the same problem appears again and I force myself to actually get something to the point that I burn myself too much.
Thank you very much for the comment! And I agree with you, capturing chaos in a picture is always a bit better :)
As an exercise in composition, I'd recommend using a tripod on some of your field trips; spend time on composition, observing how little changes in perspective can change a whole picture. This will be very helpful even when working without a tripod.
Also carefully watch the light, and how it can hide or emphasize depth and composition. I think a few splashes of light/dark would add to a composition like yours above.
Try to do 100% with your camera; pictures you 'find' on your computer are often just halfXX ;)
I'm going to try using more the tripod for sure! I'm very active and stop to set the tripod makes me think I'm losing time while I could be jumping around looking for things. But definitely, I'm going to start using it more. Thank you for the comment and the advice! I really appreciate it :)
Just do it as a practise. You will love working without a tripod afterwards, and your eye for composition will have improved.
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Thank you very much!
I'm not going to pretend like I know shit about photography even though I had a job at photography store all that info just went right over my head but I realise people put a lot of effort and money into capturing great images so I respect the craft
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Thank you for the comment and the nomination! Capturing images is the way I can express myself the best for now and it makes me happy. The effort and the money are worth it :)
It's ok to be picky. That is what makes an artist. If everything turned out perfect every time, then you would not have the passion to drive you forward. Just don't beat yourself up in the process.
I think keeping the pictures and going back at a later time is a great idea. What you see as being crap one day could be completely different. Our mindset and fresh eyes always change our perspective.
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Thank you for the comment and the nomination! And as you say, I'll try not to overthink too much :)
Eheheh. I think you are overthinking it. Next time you think about it, just blame the architects! 😂
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Hahaha thanks for the comment and the advice :')