Composition Advice Sought.

[WestLothian]

Caught between showers on our Sunday walk:-







The colours and reflections were pleasing but what advice is there for better composition please?

[Raffman]

I would go something like this, I found the branches above too distracting and although its somestime nice to frame a shot I dont think these work. I did prefered the tighter view though and if you dont mind going pano I think this works.



Raff

[Zebethyal]

Personally I would go with somthing like the following:



Placing the white canopy at a thirds intersection, and having the reflection treeline along another thirds line with the bank leading your eye in from centre right edge to the canopy over on the left.

You also gain a triangle effect with the trees from top and bottom right corners leading to the canopy.

Regards

Tim

[nightshade]

Tims composition is the most pleasing following the
thirds rule is almost a guarantee
Viewing the image through a rectangle made with thumb
and forefinger of each hand is a time honoured method
and it does work very well still

[Lance Morgan]

I would go with Tims suggestion aswell, lovely picture by the way

[Raffman]

Although Tims crop perhaps follows the rule of thirds and has a triangle effect it does nothing for me, I'm not looking at it think 'wow thats a great shot'. The red starting at the right side grabs the eye first and so you start to follow the water until you reach the canopy but thats where it ends, by leaving the bank at the close the left and therefore having space to the left side opposite the canopy you can now imagine you are sat on the water looking along and follow the water now turning the corner and going of out of site. Also by leaving the water (blue reflection) in the foregraound you have the vertical branches making things look messy, when I look at the image I go straight for the reds but then I'm drawn to the blue and branches and lose interest. The great thing with this scene is the reflection of the trees/plants with these amazing reds and greens so it would be best to concentrate on this rather than allow distractions. Of course this is all just my opinion and everyone sees things differently, plus I'm a big believer in rules are made to be broken and you should look outside of the box.

Raff

[Chris_Johnstone]

I think the branches at the top of the picture are excellent in giving the picture a feeling of depth. With them you get the feeling you're sitting under the tree looking out onto the water. I would crop the image and remove the bottom quarter or so, so as to keep the glassy reflections of the red but also to bring the canopy into a 'thirds' position.

Beautiful colours - I'd be pleased with that.

Chris

[Zebethyal]

At the end of the day this is art and there is no right or wrong version of any of these images. You will never please everyone, you can please a greater number of people by following rules, however breaking them also works on occasion but you will still only please a certain number of people.

If you like a particular composition over another then that is fine and your choice and nobody should take that choice away from you, it does not make someone else's composition wrong, what one person may like in a particular picture another may find distracting.

All we can offer are ideas.

Regards

Tim

[MalcolmX]

i might try putting the reds and white in a perspective crop and pull the white out to the left

[jennyb]

I prefer Raff's suggestion. It has more balance, which I think this photo needs. But it is all subjective, anyway.

Beautiful picture, however you crop it!

Jenny