'Harmony in Composition'

Harmony in composition is the sole reason I took this photo and the

sole reason is it is in the ratings queue. Your ratings, critiques and

observations about this man standing in front of shuttered kiosks in

Kyiv, Ukraine on a busy boulevard are invited and most welcome. If

you rate harshly, very critically, or wish to make a remark, please

submit a helpful and constructive comment; please share your

photographic knowledge to help improve my photography. Thanks!

Enjoy! john

For instance, I don't believe in any 'rule of thirds'.  Being aware of 'thirds' or threes in composition can be helpful at times, as can twos, threes, fours, fives and sixes.

Threes or thirds often works out well if otherwise called for but distorting a photo to artificially take advantage of some arbitrary 'rule' from someone's text on composition to me is the antithesis of good, instinctive photography.

So, was not planned as a 'rule of thirds' photo -- none of mine are.

And it happens there are not exact 'thirds' anyway and I think it works better that way than if I had worked to make 'thirds'.

john

John (Crosley)

.....I don't believe in 'rules'

!!!!

You got it right!!!!  They offer guidance, but blind adherence makes for predictability, and for sure my photos are hardly predictable, I think.

Thanks.

john

John (Crosley)

If one were to adhere to such rules all of the etime then one's pictures would end up looking the same.  I sometimes like to create a seeming imbalance or tension in an image to create a more visually interesting picture.

One of the themes I enjoy is the juxtaposition of man made and natural objects.  In this case the straight lines of the building contrasted against the curves of and roundness of a person. 

Thumbs up.

Thanks for the comment.

One reason I made my comment above is that this photo comes pretty close to appearing to be a 'rule of thirds' appearing photo, but one in which the 'rule of thirds' was 'off' a little bit (horizontally of course).

Actually, I compose my photos for one basic rule:  To get all the interesting compositional elements and subject elements in the frame and to exclude all the unnecessary elements.

Here the fan, upper right, with its darkness, seems to 'balance out' with his form, including head, and his figure, and somehow make up for the lack of symmetry on the left side with that of the right side.

Maybe I don't explain that so well because it's entirely intuitive.  I included the fan as a counterpoint to the man, and without the fan, this wouldn't have been posted.  I like that there are three elements of 'walls' [actually kiosk fronts and sliding kiosk 'roll-down anti-vandal covers' made of corrugated metal, and so their lines are a main theme plus the lines of their joinder with themselves and the ground.

Thus the man and the fan are 'accents' that break up those lines, with the man as the principal subject and the fan as his analogue balancing the photo's masses in my analysis.

Perhaps that says it better. 

I enhanced the contrast somewhat (without doing same to the man) so the pattern would show better, and appear to others as I saw it in my mind. 

All that metal was quite white and almost blown out until I went to work  toning it down a little.

In a way especially without the man's presence, this may be thought of as basically an abstract.  His presence really adds little more than form, mass and shape, since he his presence adds nothing more than form and texture.

Again thanks for the comment.

john

John (Crosley)

In looking at this, I was struck by how close this was to some sort of elaborate line drawing or perhaps (as I have seen done by a very detailed artist) some sort of elaborate charcoal sketch.

I might have processed it differently, but I like it the way it is.

There are other variations on  processing as well, and others might like those better or appreciate them differently.

john

John (Crosley)