I have two questions about the composition components of this image - rock, water, tree. Is there one too many or does it work. I wanted a FG element but is the rock too big. Suggestions.
Dan Ryan
Northern California
Posted by Steve Sieren on June 28, 2010 at 4:31 PM
This is a pretty nice scene Dan, I do like the rock and maybe cropping just some of it will balance out the amount of water you have in the frame. Even cropping out the sky in the bg makes the tree pop more. Those are my suggestions and it still work just the way you have it.
I can take the rock in the foreground or enjoy the image with it
cropped out. You might consider cropping from the top to see
if you like the image without any of the sky showing through the
limbs in the background. Nevertheless, thanks for sharing. This
is a pretty scenic.
First of all, this is a nice stream side image; nicely exposed with good color and contrast.
No, I don't think the rock is too big. It's a very interesting foreground object with the mosses, texture and detail. The only thing really unsettling about it is the dark LR corner.
Now there's an additional element that you didn't mention, and that's the sky. In your mind it's probably not prominent, but visually it's a distractor, well, just because the sky usually is in scenes like this.
My suggestion would be to crop out the patches of sky and crop some up from the bottom to cut out a good 1/2 of the dark LR corner. I think the left over scene is more compact and really does boil it down to your original elements of the rock, river and tree(s.)
One last suggestion that may or may not apply to this scene. Often times a large foreground object like this rock will "block" the viewer from entering the scene or block them from viewing a part of the scene they may have interest in, like the river. In this image, there's enough of the river that I don't feel it's blocking very much, but it may others. something to think about with future comps when you're out in the field.
Hope this helps,
Discussion
3 repliesDan Ryan
Northern California
cropped out. You might consider cropping from the top to see
if you like the image without any of the sky showing through the
limbs in the background. Nevertheless, thanks for sharing. This
is a pretty scenic.
First of all, this is a nice stream side image; nicely exposed with good color and contrast.
No, I don't think the rock is too big. It's a very interesting foreground object with the mosses, texture and detail. The only thing really unsettling about it is the dark LR corner.
Now there's an additional element that you didn't mention, and that's the sky. In your mind it's probably not prominent, but visually it's a distractor, well, just because the sky usually is in scenes like this.
My suggestion would be to crop out the patches of sky and crop some up from the bottom to cut out a good 1/2 of the dark LR corner. I think the left over scene is more compact and really does boil it down to your original elements of the rock, river and tree(s.)
One last suggestion that may or may not apply to this scene. Often times a large foreground object like this rock will "block" the viewer from entering the scene or block them from viewing a part of the scene they may have interest in, like the river. In this image, there's enough of the river that I don't feel it's blocking very much, but it may others. something to think about with future comps when you're out in the field.
Hope this helps,
Lon