Attempt at Thirds

[RevLinePhoto]

ok I will ask for a few more lashings in the interest of learning. I gave my attempt of thirds and was wondering how I did with the photo.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b133/papy1985/4ae13f16.jpg

Thanks ahead of time.
Ryan

[4labs]

While I think you did fine composing the shot, a guy sticking his hand in a bowling ball just doesn't do it for me.Maybe if the ball had something interesting written on it, it might be more apealing...

[XO-Studios]

ok I will ask for a few more lashings in the interest of learning. I gave my attempt of thirds and was wondering how I did with the photo.


Thanks ahead of time.
Ryan
See attached, while I agree with the poster above, subject matter, I also see a composition that doesn't really apply to the rule of thirds. The subject, I ave trouble deciding between the hand and the ball, so IMHO the transition hand to ball is the subject. While L-R on 1/3, T-B it is smack in the middle.

FWIW,

XO,

[gubbs]

Papy, I agree with both of the posts above, but I was wondering how you could give the shot more interest. Maybe getting ball level, use a shallow dof and include the alley/pins, competitors or maybe his bowling shoes in the background. Try to make the picture tell a story and put the ball in context :dunno

I think bowling alleys make could locations, Sid (wxwax) did a great shot, I think it was for one of the early challenges, I tried a quick search but couldn't find it :cry Sid help me out!!

[rutt]

What about emphasizing the wild color of the bowling ball?

http://rutt.smugmug.com/photos/31775784-L.jpg

I followed my usual workflow with a variation in order to target the increased saturation only on the blue in the ball:

1. Shadow/highlight (lots of shadow detail to recover here and a small blown highlight on the hand)

http://rutt.smugmug.com/photos/31775789-S.jpg

2. Image->Mode->LAB

3. L curve: Steepen in the area of the ball and hand:

http://rutt.smugmug.com/photos/31775788-S.jpg

4. A curve unchanged, B curve steepen only the blue side to target increased saturation on the ball:

http://rutt.smugmug.com/photos/31775786-S.jpg

5. Sharpen. Your values for this will differ greatly from mine when you work on the full res version. See my tutorials if you haven't already: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=10408 and http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=10409

Dan Margulis says that there are no bad images only imperfect treatments in post. I don't really agree, but I love to look at what there is and try to figure out how to get the most out of it.

[lynnma]

What about emphasizing the wild color of the bowling ball?



I followed my usual workflow with a variation in order to target the increased saturation only on the blue in the ball:

1. Shadow/highlight (lots of shadow detail to recover here and a small blown highlight on the hand)

http://rutt.smugmug.com/photos/31775789-S.jpg

2. Image->Mode->LAB

3. L curve: Steepen in the area of the ball and hand:

http://rutt.smugmug.com/photos/31775788-S.jpg

4. A curve unchanged, B curve steepen only the blue side to target increased saturation on the ball:

http://rutt.smugmug.com/photos/31775786-S.jpg

5. Sharpen. Your values for this will differ greatly from mine when you work on the full res version. See my tutorials if you haven't already: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=10408 and http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=10409

Dan Margulis says that there are no bad images only imperfect treatments in post. I don't really agree, but I love to look at what there is and try to figure out how to get the most out of it.nice Rutt..

[bfjr]

Come on folks your missing the point !!!

It's a 3 finger ball, See rule of thirds :rofl :lol4 :lol :hide

Sorry couldn't resist
and yes Rutt's work , works :thumb

[Higgmeister]

Hi Ryan,
I'm just going to comment about the "thirds" portion here since there are some really good critiques above mine. I see your thirds, but it's only in the columns. As XO pointed out, your into halves for the rows. Not quite the rule of thirds, but a recurring theme is something to look at. Break a photo into thirds for 3 sections, three holes in the ball as mentioned above, but we have 4 elements (hand, ball, shirt and pants). It's good that you are going for a thirds concept and watching your comp:D.

OK, I lied. I'm going to comment on one other thing. The background. Here, we have a bowler, or do we. We have a detached hand (assume it belongs to the shirt and pants due to proximity) but no setting because you chose a blank wall. With the alley and pins behind you and blurred, it would give the viewer a sense of place that is missing here.
As a good exercise, can you do another bowling shoot keeping in mind the primary focus being to shoot thirds. I'd like to see what you come up with.

I understand that you were wanting comments on thirds, but what were you trying to tell us in this shot?

Just my 2 pence worth,
Chris

How much is 2 pence worth:huh?

[wxwax]

I'll pile on. :D

There's nothing that says a hand grabbing a bowling ball can't be interesting. But this one isn't. Rutt's changes added a lot of drama to the shot, which just goes to show how important lighting is.

The right side of the shot is utterly devoid of interest, and looks incomplete. So even if the hand works, that still leaves half of the image sort of hanging there.

So while you have your hand and ball on a vertical third, which is a good start, you'd want to address lots of other things before the idea would work.

[RevLinePhoto]

Thank you all for the great comments and help. My intention for the shot was trying thirds out but I gues I was off. I am studying the basics of photography to try and get better. I have before now just been shooting what I thought would look good and not trying to place photos together. It has been hit or miss for me and I want to get my consistancy improved.

Thanks again for all the great help.
Ryan