Your photos 25

Your photos (25)

Take Better Photos

Hints and tips
by Philip Grosset

Sunset

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with comments from Philip Grosset

"Hello, I found your site while searching on the net for photo lessons online.My name is Bogdan, I am from Romania and the photos I am sending you were shot in the Sahara desert. I' d like very much to know your opinion about them. I used a Minolta X-300 camera."(Bogdan)

Of these two photos you sent me, I prefer the one on the right because there is no ugly black shade,and there is more blue in the sky, so the colours are brighter. As there's not much to see in the pictures except the colours, this is particularly important! Some foreground interest might have greatly added to the pictures' appeal.

This is almost an abstract pattern, but it's not a very pleasing one with the hard diagonal line (what is it anyway?) so forcibly chopping the picture up.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say in the photo on the left. The main centre of interest appears to be the telegraph poles, but then why all the space on the right? In my version (on the right), I've tried concentrating attention more firmly on the poles, and find this a more pleasing composition.

Reply from Bogdan: "First of all, thanks for your quick answer. Sorry for the size of my files. In the future I'll try to correct that. About the first two pictures you are perfectly right nothing interesting, but the colours. On the third picture the ugly line chopping up the picture is a ridge of the dune. The contrast between the lit area and the dark area was too big I suppose. As for the last one I just tried to catch the sunset colours with the clouds reflecting in the water using the poles to get depth for the picture.Your version works best in that sense. Thank you very much again for commenting my photos"

"Hello again, This time I send you photos made in medieval town of Sighisoara in Transylvania. I hope I am not bother you. Thanx a lot!" (Bogdan)

Who could resist Transylvania? However, the photo you sent me (on the left) shows buildings leaning over a bit to the right! This is very easy to do, and you really need to watch out, when taking a photo like this, that the most prominent vertical lines (e.g. the side of the building in the right foreground) really are vertical. I've straightened this out in the centre picture but, in the process, unfortunately lost the top of the church spire from the background. I also tried brightening up the picture (on the right) to see if it would have been worth waiting for the sun to come out. Unless you positively like the mediaeval gloom, it probably would have been!

I like the way you used the arch to frame the scene (on the left). There's a little more arch at the top of the picture than is really needed, so, on the right, I tried showing less of it and also removed the drain from the bottom of the picture. Or, if you think the drain is an essential part of the scene, you could certainly leave it in. But what would benefit either version would be the inclusion of some local people, both to add atmosphere and human interest, and to give a clearer idea of scale.

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