Fly Fisher 2

[caleb]

Shot the same day as my other one... I forgot about this shot and won't go into what I think is wrong so as not to bias. I heavily desaturated and played with the mixer for black and white, then set that layer to something like 90% opacity. I further colored the fisher himself to set him out a little more. In straight black and white, he is 'lost' in the foliage too much (same with full color). Aside from some very minor sharpening and brightness/contrast, I didn't do much else.

[jetrim]

I like the color being played down and I like him off to the side, but there are a couple of things that bug me...
1) Fisherman is totally out of scale with his surroundings. (looks like a G.I. Joe doll)
2) That collossal log that divides the photo in half.
3) The fact that the rod gets lost in the background.

I think changing the orientation to vertical by cropping out 60% of the right side would make this shot work a lot better - it's worth a try, at least.

[caleb]

yes, i agree about the logs/scale and that it's an issue. it seemed like a great, interesting composition at the time but now i feel like there isn't much usable with them in the photo. I kept so much of the right side in to balance the photo (with the rock formation). Although typing this out and thinking about it, I could crop it much closer and use the logs as balance? I will try it out

[mtbbrian]

Being an aspiring fly fisher myself, I like this photograph.
The photographer in me thinks this is a better photograph than your first one.
The lines from the logs create an interesting composition, that works well. I think they divide the photograph well, into three fairly equal parts, the fisherman, the two bigger logs and the other two on the right.
The amount of water you have in the foreground is good too.
Don't crop it vertically!
Welcome to PR.com too.
Tight lines!
Brian

[caleb]

My concern with the original (which shows more log and background is that the logs lead the eye right out of the photo, here's trying out the vertical... it came out better than i expected.

[mtbbrian]

My thoughts on the crop, and cropping this much in general, is, had you meant to present the photograph that way, why didn't you shoot it that way in the first place.
Pre visualize the scene before you press the shutter, is the point I am trying to make..
Brian

[caleb]

I just started shooting maybe three months ago and find it difficult to foresee what compositions will be best right away. I'm still learning and that's a good point, although up until now I've felt that, for the most part, shooting at high resolutions, why not get an entire scene and crop as necessary instead of possibly limiting myself to a small handful of options (by shooting this much closer). And you'll say "shoot this multiple times with multiple compositions." I won't have an answer other than inexperience for this shot. I think it's really hard in these "right place at the right time" type of shots to set up multiple times and/or see the best composition right away. Does that make sense? Any way to improve that? I've been looking through a lot of photos in the past month of specific types of scenes to learn what I like and don't like. Hopefully that's helping and is a start. I respect your advice and I'm not feeling attacked or trying to attack you for your advice if it comes out like that, it makes a lot of sense and is probably good practice especially when the time comes to making prints.

[danic]

I really like the second crop! Good job. I also like the first photo, but the second seems that much better.

I like the effect you have created with the B&W. Keep experimenting and posting.