In Search

This is a restoration from a terribly underexposed photo. Composed with

three wall shelves of books and three figures in the space in front of the

shelves. Thank you for your constructive comments on this photo.

i think this is a phenomenal image, as for the exposure i think this came out well everything is defined and nothing looks too washed out. this is the type of everyday shot that i am striving to perfect.

Thank you for your comment. I think you are being excessively kind when you term this image as 'phenomenal'. Yes, i like the photo too, despite it's flaws, and so have posted it here to see what others think of it.

I've visited your photographs and was very impressed with your photos of bubbles and of the documentation of life in a tattoo shop. I wish I could have done something like that...spend time following a project. My best wishes to you.

Excellent composition, Samrat. Bhalo achho to?

surely one of the best compositions i have come across in PN. do you have a version with the chair in full view? curious to see if how the photo looks with that. but this is truely a great composition. great light/exposure too. compliments -koushik

Many thanks for your appreciation.

Kaushikda, I do not have a version with the full chair...space was at a premium. I do not take any credit for the light...this is resurrected from a terrible photo.

The successful photograph often uses various graphic or photographic devices, knowingly or unknowingly, to achieve its purpose.

Successful photographs are successful often and mainly because they draw the viewer past the idea that they are looking at a 'photograph' and into the scene.

This is a scene about two people in a library or bookstore, but this is more than a scene of a bunch of books on shelves; it's a bunch of books akimbo; all shelved and mis shelved, leaning this way and that way.

In short, they're all straight lines along their vertical axes, but they're leaning in various directions, from left to right, as we view them.

Yet the bins or shelves that contain them are rigid, so there's an obvious contradiction or opposition inherent within each depiction of a shelf full of books.

I happen to relish life's contradictions, and here on every shelf full of disheveled (or poorly shelved) books, is a contradiction - the books fight against being stored straight vertically and lean this way or that.

I also happen to like the use of 'threes' in composition (as well as 'twos')

I have a presentation on 'threes' in my own composition and it's interesting how often the use of 'three' in a composition can help it achieve a somewhat higher level.

Here the bookshelves are arranged, left to right, in three walls, and that helps draw our eye in and also creates a sort of symmetry, but not so symmetrical that we accept it out of hand.

In short, this photo, even if still in need of a little better post processing because of its initial underexposure, transcends that, because it sucks the viewer in.

We struggle with the leaning books against their rigid shelves, and our eyes trace around the alcove or room comparing from different angles the various views of the same thing.  That of course is another view - kind of like a reflecting mirror - each angle of the three angles you have presented us of shelves and books is almost like looking in a reflecting mirror and treats us to a different angle of almost the same subject -- for a most complex view and maybe more than you had initially supposed you were capturing, but yours entirely nonetheless.

I might have brought out the floor tiles just a bit more, though not much, to see if enhancing their geometry would add or detract from the geometry (or lack thereof) of the shelves and books.  You just never know about such things until you try 'messing with them'.

There are often verbally explainable reasons why a photo may be successful; this is my explanation, and I stand by it, though I can always be reasoned with.

;~))

john

John (Crosley)