Oh Snap!: Student Pictures

Oh snap! First of all, I don't know why there is a big gap in the last post. It doesn't show in my edit and I've tried to correct it without luck. Please just scroll through.

Thanks to those of you sending in pictures. What creative minds.... thinking outside the box!!
Now.....
Melanie Gay:

Melanie, fantastically creative. Look at the texture and depth of field you got in the carpet. It has a nice modern feel to it!

Here is Melanie's original shot. She has a great eye for thinking outside the box and being creative! I'm going to help out a bit here. As we talked in class.... snap, then get closer, fill the frame and get closer still. The photographer has to 'exclude' from his/her picture. This picture has a lot of 'clutter'. What can we do? Well, we can crop, but we will be losing pixels hence quality of the picture. That's all we have, that why we keep shooting a subject. Remember digital doesn't cost you anything!

Moving in closer I took out the cement at the bottom of the picture and a bit of fence but if you notice there is still an unrestful clutter at the top. 'Clutter' that doesn't really 'do' anything for the picture so let's move in closer.

Here we are focused on three things, there is no other background noise to distract us. The subject is definitely what we are focused on. However the pixels are very compromised. I played with contrast etc. to get a better photo but this probably wouldn't print very well.

Melanie's last picture has a nice old days feel too it with the sepia tone. What is your eye immediately drawn to here? Where is it placed? Melanie, could you crop this to provide a better composition and resend it to me. Hint: I love the sign shadow, truck and Vulture Peak. How can you make it all work to provide a more balance shot?

Lily Grote:

Look at her elements of design! The well focused cacti top (patterns) has leading 'lines' into the pot where you can tell has the texture of dirt and the 'shape' of a pot but the main focus remains on the intricacy of the cacti top. Well done!

Nice job using the 'bewitching hour' to capture this shot shooting into the sun, no less. You even gave Pike some 'looking' room. I will admit, I did help your clouds out to give them some more definition. It's tough not to lose detail when you shoot into the sun and get that little sunflare that I'm sure you wanted.

Another great compositon and use of shapes with some texture thrown in. There are leading lines with the pots (that also have patterns), the leading line of the wall, that all lead to the nice shape of the gateway. The dark area helps emphasize the pot. Good work.

Nice looking room. One thing to watch for would be the tilt of the horizon. See how the cement goes up on one side. If you want tilt you have to make it obvious, not....'Gee, is that suppose to be tilted?' iphoto has tilt correction or adding.