Yet another school assignment to be submitted, this time with the theme of The Decisive Moment. The photos are all black and white, as stated in the assignment’s requirements.
As usual, click on the images for a larger version.
Childhood
Composition: Frame within frame
Comments: Something as simple as playing on the swings with their father accompanying them can depict a child’s joy. The photo was taken with a gap in the foreground frame, with the image presenting itself as an invitation to relieving one’s childhood joy.
The Ice-cream Man
Composition: Rule of Thirds
Comments: The anticipation for ice-cream is written all over the girl’s face as she observes the ice-cream man preparing her ice-cream. Similar to the previous image, this is yet another depiction of a child’s joy. The shot was composed in a way that the ice-cream man is the main focus, leaving out as much of the crowd as possible.
Flight
Composition: Negative space, Rule of thirds
Comments: This photo was taken with as plain a background as possible so as to throw the focus on the skater himself, despite parts of the image containing motion blur. The photo was taken from a side view so as to show the “wings” the skater possesses as he raises his hands while in the air, emulating flight for that split second.
Impromptu Stage
Composition: Rule of thirds
Comments: The skate ramp transforms into a impromptu stage for the rollerskating boy’s performance as a boy on the right halts his skateboard to observe in admiration as stunts are performed.
Besides the 4 decisive moment snaps, there are also 2 shots of the same subject taken under different lighting. My subject’s a pair of headphones.
Yin
Lighting: Back lighting
Composition: Negative space
Yang
Lighting: Side lighting
Composition: Negative space
Comments: The background used was kept plain to place greater emphasis on the headphones. A reading light was used for illumination as flash wasn’t sufficient to obtain the result I wanted. The reason why I chose my headphones as the subject was due to be being white. The outcome was to be simplistic, yet have a visual impact.
—End of assignment—
As with the previous photography post quite some time ago, please leave comments regarding what photos you liked and the improvements that could be made. It was a first for me to try out playing with the lighting, so I took quite some time to get the last 2 shots right. Also, I’ve realised that street photography is quite fun, aside from the occasional unfriendly people met.
The next and final assignment would require me to tell a story with a compliation of pictures, so I’m thinking of using lyrics from a Bump of Chicken song as the story.
Ice-cream Man
The photo is too cluttered with people, eyes tends to wonder around everywhere in the photo.
Maybe bokeh out the background or maybe only the 2 main subject have colors and the rest are b/w?
Base on my noob interpretation, might not work out well. :3
Yay. Another photography assignment. Here’s my take.
Childhood:
First off, nice timing. It’s good on its own but there are a couple of different takes on it. Pity about the pole in the foreground.
1) Crop off the stray leg on the left.
2) Crop and frame the two kids
3) Crop and frame the laughing kid and the dad.
Ice-cream man:
Idea is there, but needs better execution. Too much clutter and subject not isolated enough. Consider tight crop of girl and ice-cream man.
Flight:
Once again, nice timing. Motion blur works well in this instance. Pity about the “white” board on “white” tiles. Consider a floor eye view if you wanna highlight the “flight” theme. Might wanna use flash to cast his flying shadow on the wall too.
Impromptu stage:
Nice capture but messy background. Consider taking from the back of the skateboarder at a low angle. You’d have either buildings or sky as the BG. Or simply do a panoramic crop to get rid of the bottom portion.
Yin & Yang:
Nice and simple lighting. Not sure about including the connector though. Also, when text is involved, make sure it’s upright.
Overall, nice work this time around. Streets/candids are tough to get right due to its randomness , but keep on shooting!
the pics looks good enough in my opinion. i have nothing to criticise.
Blurmage > Yea, I would have zoomed in to blur out the background, but I couldn’t since there was a whole stream of human traffic just behind me.
MrMayat > All this while, I’ve been only posting images with the standard few aspect ratios, either 4:3 or 1.81:1, so I’m not sure if I should crop them out of the usual ratios.
As for the connector in Yin and Yang, it was in my intention to include it in the image for a slightly visible reflection in the headphone cans.
gordon > You flatter me. But really, I felt I might be able to do better for the first 2 images.
double: I think what MrMayat meant is that you can undergo a post-processing activity to artficially crop some of the pictures you took. (Unless, of course, image manipulation is strictly forbidden in your assignments.)
I won’t express my criticisms, because I think MrMayat have expressed some professional criticisms well enough. Also, there’s at least some direction in your post like this, unlike mine. :X
TP > No one would know if it’s manipulated, unless they check the EXIF info.
Also, I’m no pro. Just practicing my analytical and compositional skills. Do read up “The Photographer’s Eye” to gain some valuable insights.