mnewberry

You're welcome. It is just our different ways of seeing the same scene. Clearly the church is an important element in your view, but I don't see the balance you describe. Can you increase the field to the right and bottom and see what that looks like?

Nice photo. What I will suggest is not a critique so much as a suggestion for a different way to have approached this scene (which, of course, reflects my own way of "seeing" versus other ways of seeing).

 

Although the ocean of red roofs is fascinating, I don't see a central element here. The way I see it is that the focal point is that lone dark roof at the right edge. How many suh objects are there? It appears to exist within a monoculture of red roofs. So I would have shifted the center and adjusted the perspective and cropping so as to accentuate the lone dark roof. I also would not have made it dead center. It needs to be placed at a particular "power point" in the image, and that depends upon how all the other elements (flow lines, etc) fall into place.

 

/ Michael

In general, I agree with Cark about multiple main elements creating tension between them. But no rule, regardless of how basic, should be considered absolute. To me, this image is just supposed to have tension. There is a dissonance between the stark, massive, and sharply defined rocks, and the smooth, sensuous, vaguely present flow of water. To me it feel like strength and weakness, masculine versus feminine... who will win?

 

/ Michael

Personally, I think this photo is a great starting point for something more powerful but is "flat" as presented. This is a photo I wish I would have taken, so I could then spend a lot of time working it in the darkroom.

 

First, I think it needs more brilliance overall, which could benefit from higher contrast and a little more warmth from Selenium toning (has that already been done and my monitor just doesn't show it?) There is a structural element I feel is potentially very important and which needs to br accentuated by local burning. I would like to see the sensual curve of light in the lower 1/3 brightened to continue the flow begun near the upper left. This done by burning through a mask while jiggling and tracking along the curve. As currently shown, this is essential if anything just to keep the lower 20--25% from adding a dark sense of heaviness to the overall composition--- in my opinion.

 

Second, I would like more space on the top, left, and right. The top is the main area that needs to be expanded since, as is, the ceiling seems too low above the rock. But perhaps this is impossible since it may not be on the original negative. With the ceiling expanded and the lower S-curve enhanced, it gives a vertical flow to the overall image. I don;t know if Carlos intended that originally, but the image feels like a vertical flow to me.

 

In summary, I like Carlos' original vision. But I would change the cropping (or have used a different framing on the neg), add overall luminosity, and burn in the sensual curving element that flows through the lower 1/3.

 

Nice work, Carlos!

 

/ Michael