Your photos (140)


Hints and tips
by Philip Grosset



If you'd like to submit photos for criticism,
click here.

with comments from Philip Grosset




"I'm sending you these four photos so I can hear your opinion about them. I wasn't really trying to do anything in particular. I was just getting the hang of a camera that I bought. Let me know what I'm doing wrong and/or correct. Thank you! My name is Dzejna and I'm from Sarajevo, Bosnia."
This is a very effective symmetrical composition, but a more distant view (if this were possible) would have shown us more of the setting, or a closer view would have shown more of the chandelier. As it is, all we can see really clearly are the stairs and part of the foreground balcony.
Balcony
Trees A very pleasant scene that could perhaps have been made even more attractive by the inclusion of someone walking down the path, so as to add some human interest and provide a sense of scale.
Statue cropped
Statue
Your photo on the left is taken from too far away to show the statue very clearly. On the right, I've moved in closer to make it look more arresting. I've kept it off-centre, positioning it a third of the way down the picture (see the information about the rule of thirds at the foot of this page). Leaving this space below it suggests that it might be about to move down towards the camera!
Tower Tower straightened
The tower here is sloping over to the right, so in my version on the right I've straightened this out, and also moved the tower away from the absolute middle of the picture. As so often, this produces a more interesting looking result.

These pictures certainly got you off to a good start with your new camera!




"I am working and teaching in Korea and want to send a couple of pics. The street scene is in my neighbourhood where I live and I was trying to capture the extremely crowded and dense living conditions. The side streets are so narrow and the buildings so close it boggles the mind! I thought woman in the first photo was an added element but the truck seems to obscure some of the distance perspective. The second photo is a picture taken last fall near one of the largest Buddhist temples in Korea. It was so beautiful. I tried to balance the forground with the rest of the picture. I thought the colours were fantastic too! Thank you for your time." (Earl LeBlanc)
Road cropped
Road
On the left: the inclusion of the woman certainly adds to the photo's interest, but it would be more satisfying to position her nearer to the camera (as I have done on the right) than to show her halfway into the picture. But, as you say, it's a pity that the truck in the background obscures the view. You could produce a less cluttered looking picture by cropping away the car in the left foreground, as in my experiment on the right, but this makes the street look less scruffy, so you may prefer your original version.
Street cropped
Street
Your photo on the left can be made even more colorful by brightening it up (or taking it on a sunny day) as on the right. I've also tried cropping off the edges so as to bring the walker more into the immediate foreground. The result is, I think, less confusing (although it would be interesting to also include a closer shot to show what it is that is being sold) and it also emphasises the colors by slightly lessening the amount of dark foreground.
You've certainly got interesting subjects to photograph, but if you want to bring out the extremely crowded living conditions, it might be an idea to include more people and/or narrower streets. But one way or another, it looks as though you could end up with a really memorable set of pictures.




Go on to YOUR PHOTOS (141)




Please don't forget to sign my GUEST BOOK before you leave the site!



 Finding your way around this site

NEXT PAGE