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peterkopher — Beach Open
Published: 2013-10-31 12:45:29 +0000 UTC; Views: 175; Favourites: 1; Downloads: 0
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Description
Lake Minnewaska, in Minnewaska State Park, on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in the park.Related content
Comments: 1
I was immediately drawn to this image because it is very dynamic. This photo seems alive, which is especially impressive because the scene itself is kind of a lazy day. There are a couple ways you succeeded in creating this:
- The 'beach open' sign is your focal point, and the first place the eye is drawn. It creates an immediate feeling for the scene. Normally, they say that it is against the rules of composition to place the focal point in the middle of the image. "Fried egg composition" I believe is the term that's used. This is an example of a rule being broken very skillfully. The "beach open" sign is a focal point only in an abstract way. It is, in a sense the underlying theme, but only because of its meaning. Optically, its dark tonal value and low chroma seemingly want to push your attention away from that as quickly as possible. The fact that the sign is complementary to the surrounding skintones contributes to this is well. Its one of the most original compositional arrangements I've seen in a while.
From a composition standpoint, the one thing working against it is the high tone and saturation of the lower right hand corner. The bright, highly saturated grass is literally almost an arrow shape, directing the eyes to that corner.
The other small observation is that the sharpness--which is by and large a strength for this photo-- might be applied a bit too uniformly. You can't lose it from the immediate foreground, and it is applied extremely well on the human subjects, which leaves the hillside on the landmass on the distant shore and the clouds and possibilities for softening. The distant clouds are appropriately blurred already, and having the foreground clouds stay keep their current sharpness is a good idea...I think of this as giving the image a "roof". The trees on the other end of the lake are then the best choice to blur slightly to draw out the sense of depth. The saturation of that part of the picture could probably be reduced as well, which would also serve the purpose of giving the figures a stronger sense of form.
On a snowy, upstate ny day it was a delight to spend a few minutes looking at this. Thank you for sharing!
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