Doubt this will get far but I have the urge to vent. I was struck, again, today by how many "almost" great images there are on Caedes that fall short because their composers seem to have not a clue, not a smidge of a glimmering of a faintest idea about even the basics of composition theory that are available on this website. Let alone the stuff available on the web or in any decent photographic basics book.
Crooked waterlines and horizons, any round subject smack centre of the image, horizons at 50% every time, foregrounds treated as if they don't exist or have no impact, etc etc. I see image after image that could be SO good but is instead only halfborn.
How @%$^&$$% hard is it to read a few paragraphs and apply them in the field? Really?
Is it the case that the logic goes something like this. "Yes, I know there are some time tested principles about what is generally compositionally advantageous BUT we all know that they are only "guidelines" and the really great artists would break those principles and create great art SO obviously if I ignore those principles my images will be just fine thanks very much."
What the *@%#&^#%$ is the point of taking a photo and sharing it if you put as much thought into it as you do your burps and farts..."I can do it easily so it must be worthwhile as it is".
My vent is not relevant to family snapshots and the like, I don't think there is any reason NOT to use good principles in them but I GET that the emotive elements for the photographer exist in those shots regardless of their quality as "art".
So many people have, in the time I've been on this website, had so much to say about "unfair" scores, in the good old days of the VB. A fair percentage of those voices, if you went and looked at their gallery, didn't seem to grasp that there might be a justifiable reason some folk (Me among them.) would give low scores or zeros at times. (I'm not defending the empty souls who gave zeros from malice or mischief.)
Now there are websites where every image IS freaking precise and amazing and frankly a bit intimidating in it's excellence. I'm not on one of those because I'm simply not good enough. I don't want Caedes to turn into something like that but being relaxed and friendly is no reason to be lazy and slapdash when it's SO easy to lift the quality of your work with a few simple ideas and a bit of thought in the field.
Finally, your images will reward you way more when you do apply the principles, until you do it, you won't know what I mean but once you've started to internalize the basics of composition, you are on your way to being able to ignore them and surpass anything you've ever created. I'm looking forward to that moment myself, one day.
Crooked waterlines and horizons, any round subject smack centre of the image, horizons at 50% every time, foregrounds treated as if they don't exist or have no impact, etc etc. I see image after image that could be SO good but is instead only halfborn.
How @%$^&$$% hard is it to read a few paragraphs and apply them in the field? Really?
Is it the case that the logic goes something like this. "Yes, I know there are some time tested principles about what is generally compositionally advantageous BUT we all know that they are only "guidelines" and the really great artists would break those principles and create great art SO obviously if I ignore those principles my images will be just fine thanks very much."
What the *@%#&^#%$ is the point of taking a photo and sharing it if you put as much thought into it as you do your burps and farts..."I can do it easily so it must be worthwhile as it is".
My vent is not relevant to family snapshots and the like, I don't think there is any reason NOT to use good principles in them but I GET that the emotive elements for the photographer exist in those shots regardless of their quality as "art".
So many people have, in the time I've been on this website, had so much to say about "unfair" scores, in the good old days of the VB. A fair percentage of those voices, if you went and looked at their gallery, didn't seem to grasp that there might be a justifiable reason some folk (Me among them.) would give low scores or zeros at times. (I'm not defending the empty souls who gave zeros from malice or mischief.)
Now there are websites where every image IS freaking precise and amazing and frankly a bit intimidating in it's excellence. I'm not on one of those because I'm simply not good enough. I don't want Caedes to turn into something like that but being relaxed and friendly is no reason to be lazy and slapdash when it's SO easy to lift the quality of your work with a few simple ideas and a bit of thought in the field.
Finally, your images will reward you way more when you do apply the principles, until you do it, you won't know what I mean but once you've started to internalize the basics of composition, you are on your way to being able to ignore them and surpass anything you've ever created. I'm looking forward to that moment myself, one day.
Vent done.
Mikel.