Agreed, I think I backed off too far. A tighter crop on the boat is next on my list to try. Cheers for the example.
Really useful, thanks. Fair point on the wide angle, I think that's what's pushing the light and dark out of balance. I'll have another go at the composition.
Thanks! I hadn't tried a B&W version, that's a good shout. The sky would probably carry it more.
Took this at the old fishing boat wreck at Corpach, near Fort William, crouched low by the bow. I liked it at the time but it never quite worked, and it took a critique to show me why.
- I exposed for the sky and lost the boat. The shadow side of the hull is just a dark shape. The fix is simple: meter (or tap to expose) on the hull, not the sky, and accept a slightly brighter sky. Then zoom right in and check you can see the wood grain.
- The horizon runs downhill to the right. Not by much, but enough that your eye slides out of the frame. Grid on, or rotate in the edit and crop the corners off.
- The foreground pebbles are a bit soft. They take up the bottom third, so they carry a lot of the texture. Focusing about a third of the way up from the bottom would have helped.
The one thing it said I got right was the low angle: "The low, close viewpoint makes the hull feel tall and imposing, which suits the subject well." So I'll take that.
Disclosure: the critique came from Artluni, a tool I built for exactly this kind of feedback, with each note pinned to the part of the photo it means. If anyone wants to try it there's a no-signup preview on the homepage and 3 free critiques with no card: https://artluni.com/?code=FOUNDING50&ref=lemmy-photography . If you end up liking it, FOUNDING50 gives half price for your first 6 months, then normal price, cancel any time. Happy to hear what you'd have done differently with this one, too.
