Light in The Midst of The Storm

[CNelson]

We are in northern California for a couple weeks so yesterday I set out on a stormy day to see what I could shoot. I came upon this scene which had its own natural beauty but also a bit of symbolism.

Sorry about the large logo.

Chuck

 

[JaniceL]

dark and dreary indeed. I think I'd like to see the church a tad brighter to bring that message home.

 

[BobH]

Janice, I would tend to agree, but also bear in mind that the variation between monitors could mean it is "a tad brighter" on his screen. Some of the new LCDs are quite "hot" if they're not calibrated, very bright. Then folks try to print something and can't understand why it's so dark.

Also, while I'm not sure what I'd do about it, the church being pretty much in the center bugs me. But I like the barn on the left, and the light colored trees on the right, so I have no good suggestion on how to crop it differently.

 

[JaniceL]

Janice, I would tend to agree, but also bear in mind that the variation between monitors could mean it is "a tad brighter" on his screen. Some of the new LCDs are quite "hot" if they're not calibrated, very bright. Then folks try to print something and can't understand why it's so dark.

Also, while I'm not sure what I'd do about it, the church being pretty much in the center bugs me. But I like the barn on the left, and the light colored trees on the right, so I have no good suggestion on how to crop it differently.

Monitors are such an issue. I work off of a laptop with a second monitor that's calibrated (sort of ) to my epson printer and looks pretty good. Which moves me to the comment that I have a hard time getting people to understand that when they look at their monitor to preview a photo that it won't look the same as a print because of reflective versus transmitted light and the differences between monitors.

Now where was I? Oh yeah the photo. I agree that maybe a different placement of the church would be better but I'm not sure what cropping could be used here either. Hmm, I'll have to think about it some.

 

[BobH]

Well, rules are made to be broken.

The "rule of thirds" is well known for good reason, it's often the best approach, but maybe in this case having a point of interest in the center works. Sometime the rule is "Do you like the shot?"

 

[Rascal]

I had the same thought about the composition with the church being too centered. The it appeared that it may already be cropped or a pano stitch, which would certainly leave room for cropping...?

 

[JaniceL]

I hope I'm not overstepping here. I thought I'd try a little manipulation in PS. Just a tiny bit of shift. Maybe you can't see it on your monitor because it is a very small adjustment.

 

[CNelson]

I appreciate everyone's comments and don't mind the rework. I am aware of the rule of thirds but I centered the church right to left (in camera) in order to include what looked good and exclude what didn't, the shot includes just about the entire sun patch and I don't think a half patch would have worked as well.

This is a 10x20 crop from the original which is 8x12 aspect ratio and you can see it on my website. When I cropped for the 10x20 I tried it with the church in the upper then the lower third and didn't like it either way so it ended up in the middle...for better or worse.

I left the area outside of the sunpatch fairly dark to emphasize the sun patch and the theme...light in midst of storm. Consequently it does have a bit of a dreary overall look but it offers a ray of hope. You will notice the left side of the church in direct sunlight is almost blown out so I didn't try to lighten it any more.

I may play with the image some more when I get back to my desktop. It looks pretty much as I wanted it to be on my laptop which was recently calibrated. I like Janice's slightly lighter version and may rethink this version.

Thanks all for the comments and suggestions. BTW...if you look at the grass in the foreground you will see how hard the wind was blowing. I had to press my camera against a fencepost to get a decent shot.

Chuck

 

[BobH]

Janice, I like your slightly lighter version on the monitor I'm on right now, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear it's slightly washed out on other monitors. There's way more variation than there should be in monitors, at least on the PC side. Maybe mac has a better handle on it.

Chuck, I understand with what you're saying and agree that what you did works good. Besides, the whole theme here is "in the midst of the storm" i.e. in the middle. Having the church in the middle of the image echos that theme.

Sometimes you have to do something different than usual, and there's nothing wrong with that. Rigidly adhering to the "rule of thirds" without regard to the composition isn't much better than putting the subject in the center every single time.

 

[CNelson]

Thanks Bob. To be honest, it bothers me a bit that I couldn't follow the rule of thirds with this image but, as you said, it's more of a principle than a rule. In my opinion it didn't work for me with this image. I was able to follow the "rule" here http://www.chucknelsonphotography.com/p264219282/e159338fd
and it is more pleasing to the eye as a result.

Chuck

 

[BobH]

Thanks Bob. To be honest, it bothers me a bit that I couldn't follow the rule of thirds with this image but, as you said, it's more of a principle than a rule. In my opinion it didn't work for me with this image. I was able to follow the "rule" here http://www.chucknelsonphotography.com/p264219282/e159338fd
and it is more pleasing to the eye as a result.

Chuck

OK, so here's the question... Does the church being in the center bother you because you couldn't follow the rule (guideline) about not having objects in the center, or do you not like the image because the main subject is centered?

If you're bothered since you didn't follow the rule, forget about it, and go with the image.

If the image just doesn't feel right somehow, then you have something to be concerned about.

The image you linked to looks great. You actually followed two rules in that shot, which may be why it's so pleasing, of course along with the fact that it's just a nice image to start with.

You did the rule of thirds quite well, and you also gave the horse and rider space to move, by placing him in the right hand third, with space in front of the horse. That space avoids a "crowded" feeling.

I noticed you've also got another image of the horse and rider, with them further into the frame. http://www.chucknelsonphotography.com/p264219282/e159338fd#h3fec4761 It's a nice shot too, but I really prefer the first version, where the horse is on the right side.

 

[CNelson]

Bob...I think it bothers me mostly because I think it might have been more pleasing if I had been able to put the church more off center. Yet when I took the shot and played with it it worked best, for my aesthetic tastes, as it is. Some shots work best with the main subject centered and I'm usually not so bothered doing it but because I thought about it at the time I took the shot, again when I processed it and again as it comes up in comments I'm being too fussy. As you said, perhaps I should just go with it. Thanks for your input.

Chuck