this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2023
4 points (100.0% liked)

Photo Critique

414 readers
1 users here now

A community to critique photographs and learn from others.

Rules

Trying to create a similar space to /r/photocritique

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Photographer
Labotomized
4
Speed boat (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 years ago by yenahmik to c/photocritique
2 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Part of me absolutely loves this picture, but part of me thinks maybe I should've done something differently. I'm interested to hear others thoughts.

Things I like:

  • I really like the contrast between the dark water and the brightness of the cliffside.
  • I also like the way the wake behind the boat appears

Things that could be improved:

  • Would it be better if the boat was on the right side of the frame? I feel like where it is right now cuts off some of the wake and detracts from the photo.

  • Also, while I like the division between light and dark, should it be framed higher so there is less of the water and more cliff? It just feels like a lot of the water is dead space to me.

top 2 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[โ€“] Labotomized 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I very much agree with your own critique especially the cliff side - it's beautiful! And the wake of the boat very much emphasizes the speed of the scene.

As for your questions: I think the photo is great as-is with the positioning of the boat. Very similar to a photo of someone walking it's nice to see the path/destination of the subject - just like we can see where to boat is headed.

The photo might be better as a wide shot to see more of the scenery just to give the viewer more of an idea of what is going on. I feel like the boat as a subject sits in a weird spot as far as the zoom of the lens. It's not quite tight enough to see too much detail of the boat itself and not quite wide enough to see the scenery. So maybe it would be beneficial to pick one or the other. Just food for thought.

Less water and more cliff would be nice as well but it is neat how the boat is "cutting" the photo in half.

Personally, I think it might would be fun to lower the shutter speed and get a tracking shot to emphasize the speed of the boat. The wake is already blurry so you wouldn't lose out there, but you would lose detail in the cliff side. The water would also appear more smooth so those would just be things to consider.

And a side note: is the photo a bit blurry or is that just compression from the site? Hard to tell as I'm not too familiar with how image hosting works here.

Also I'm gonna pin this post for a while because I think it's a great example of critiquing your own work! Great job :D

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Here's my personal opinion about this picture. I believe that you selected the boat and it's wake as your main subject for this frame. If so, in my opinion, they are too hidden in the frame. There's nothing that makes them stand out; on the contrary, the cliffside hides it. You mentioned the contrast between the dark water and the brightness of the cliff side. I think that since both are part of the background, this big contrast actually deviates the attention from the main subject, the boat and it's wake. Normally, placing the boat on the right side would remove a part of the story (i.e., the destination of the boat, since it is a moving object). However, since one of the things that caught your attention of this scene was the boat's wake, I think including more of it makes sense. Then your story is not its destination anymore, but its speed, beauty, etc. Consider the stroy that you want to transmit when composing. Dead space is not a problem, the important thing is main subject and background separation (contrast), and main subject emphasis, both which could be improved in this frame.