(Less is More)
Student's Thoughts while on assignment:
Hi Rick,
Here are my pictures for this week.
Paul
One Color
[One quick question about cropping. Are you cropping some of your shots? The last image seemed skinnier than the first two?] This image is grasping the idea of setting a mood via color choice and palette reduction (to really just blue, perhaps brown as warm color opposite.) But, technically, the image is suffering from camera motion during the exposure. This brings us back to the "safe shutter speeds" conversation. Were you slower than 1/60th second on this image? Good opportunities in this shot, via where you might place your focus and using a shallow depth-of-field (choosing an open aperture—low ƒstop number.) I feel this image is very cramped with the lines of the reeds abutting and touching the right side of the frame, as well as that reed at top getting truncated. I have a sense you might have been trying a long exposure to show the motion of the water? But, you either handheld or your tripod got bumped?
Two Color
I see your Rules of 1/3rds carrying forward into this lesson. Nicely placed and composed. In this shot, while the tree and bush do get truncated (like above with the reeds), it doesn't feel cramped as much as helps channel our attention to the horses grazing in the field. I like the repeating motif of those horizontal fence lines that repeat 4 times at they continue into the background. All green photograph with warm orange/brown in the drier grasses. Pine tree textures add a nice contrast to the simple carpet of green grass. Nice image.
Three Color
Here too, like the first image, I feel a little cramped (almost as if the image was cropped down from larger image). I see the RED, YELLOW, BLUE in the composition and the colors are quite nice together. The little red corn set off by the larger field of faded and saturated yellow colors. That is a nice notion in photography—using one color but showing us variations on that color in muted tones, electric tones, saturated tones. All in all, still not quite sure where to put my attention and I feel the composition and design here could use a boost for more clarity.