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Phone Call

Posted: Wed 12 Mar 2014, 22:52
by Mike Farley
This was taken on a photographic foray in London earlier this year and is the sort of offbeat image which I sometimes include in a club competition entry to see what a judge would make of it. Not with any success whatsoever, I would add. What do people think of this effort?

Panasonic DMC-G3
Leica DG Summilux 25 f/1.4 (50 mm equivalent for 35 mm)
1/60 sec
f/5.6
ISO 800

Re: Phone Call

Posted: Thu 13 Mar 2014, 10:52
by davidc
Strikes me as being the kind of thing a club judge would lap up, did they not? That would surprise me.

Re: Phone Call

Posted: Thu 13 Mar 2014, 17:38
by Mike Farley
davidc wrote:Strikes me as being the kind of thing a club judge would lap up, did they not? That would surprise me.


Sorry, I don't understand the comment.

Re: Phone Call

Posted: Fri 14 Mar 2014, 10:54
by Nina
I agree with David's view that some judges may score this highly, but I am not that keen on this one Mike.

The negative space on the right doesn't add to the image.
The guy on the phone is not in the best position as he overlaps one of the "cones" and photographed from your vantage point it is difficult to see his full outline.

On the plus side some architectural details are nice. Did you take any more at this location?

Re: Phone Call

Posted: Sat 15 Mar 2014, 12:53
by Mike Farley
Nina wrote:I agree with David's view that some judges may score this highly, but I am not that keen on this one Mike.

The negative space on the right doesn't add to the image.
The guy on the phone is not in the best position as he overlaps one of the "cones" and photographed from your vantage point it is difficult to see his full outline.

On the plus side some architectural details are nice. Did you take any more at this location?


Thanks, Nina.

Recently, I have found myself favouring more unusual images compared to the more standard camera club fare, of which this one is an example. I am not sure where it is all going, but I'll be sticking with it to find out. 8-)

This is not really a competition candidate, mainly for the reason Nina has given, the man overlapping one of the cones. Ideally, he would have been a bit further to the right, but that would have risked placing him on the central vertical axis which might not have worked either. As to the negative space, placing the subject at bottom left goes against one of the "rules" of composition which states that the bottom right hand side of the image is the strongest area for positioning the main point of interest. I quite like the shot because it does not conform in that way.

Is the space on the right actually negative? There is a gradation of tones from right to left with the transition point on the right vertical third and it is filled with diagaonal lines, which add interest. I felt that there was enough going on to justify its inclusion in this instance.

This was something of a grab shot as I was on my way to somewhere else, but I might return to the location at some point to see if it can yield something better.