Slates: Nature in Architecture

[Donald]

Heavy rain had just stopped. The sun came out.
Would welcome your views about whether this works or not.

40D, 17-85 IS USM @ 38mm, Manual, 1/8sec @ f/16, ISO 100, Liveview, 2 sec delay, Circ Pol Filter. Curves and Local Contrast Enhancement

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Donald,

Hmmm. this is tricky, I can see why you're asking.
Firstly let's say it's a nicely exposed and processed shot of a wet tiled roof with excellent tonal range and sharpness.

Now, the composition; it sort of works, there's a good spread of angles, a convergence point top left, but at edge of frame so my eyes just wander around not sure when to stop. Changing little things like taking one of the diagonals right into the point of a corner could make quite a difference, but it wouldn't address the wandering eye issue.

I dunno, does it need something on the roof to draw ones attention?
The contour patterns on the four biggest, closest tiles do do this to an extent.
I also wonder what other formats might look like, i.e. a bit squarer than this panorama?

Sorry, not sure that's been much help,

[Steaphany]

I like it.

I agree that there is nothing to draw a viewers attention to any specific point, but each slate possesses a unique natural texture within the geometric structure that makes up the roof. The lighting also hints at the contents of the sky while lacking any distracting mirror like reflections.

This photo invites the viewer to explore rather than being led.

Nice work.

[Donald]

Dave, Steaphany
Many thanks for your comments.
Steaphany - Indeed, the idea was about exploring the texture and the light and seeing if I could capture and bring out what got my attention in the first place. I suppose it was something like an invitation to wander round the roof.
Dave - Your comments get to the nub of what I didn't know I was struggling with - hence the re-confirmation of the value of this site as a learning space.
I fiddled around for ages putting a frame on this, taking the frame off, etc, in order to focus attention in on the image - not standing back and asking, 'What is it that I think is lacking and why am I thinking a frame is the answer?' Composition. Pretty basic when someone points it out to you! Am away back to the image to apply your thoughts re lines and formats.
Donald
ps - Steaphany. Love your location information. Made me more skilled at navigating on Google Earth.

[crisscross]

I think there is a place for 'texture shots' like this one. If you go to a local camera club I could see it doing well in a competition with a limiting subject.

However for 'open' it does lack a point of attention which seems important in an image as such. I was looking at one last week which also had some interesting curves where the roof support had weakened between cross-walls; I didn't press the button, maybe because the rain didn't stop and it was difficult to get a good angle, maybe I wondered if it would indeed make an image in isolation.

[Donald]

Chris

Thankyou for commenting.

I take encouragement from that fact that you and others indicate that there are aspects of this that are okay, and that is a great motivator. Remembering the basics is the key!

[Wirefox]

Donald the images I like best are the ones that evoke memory and emotion regardless of the technical capture (which is good by the way). For me this brought summer hols in North Wales when I was a kid. Rain on slate roofs was a predominant feature of that exotic location. I can smell the sea front chippy and now

[Donald]

Wirefox
Thankyou for that kind comment. I imagine that was the same rain that soaked the west coast of Scotland where I grew up.

[iPhillip]

You need to look up Koudelka and his book Chaos. He takes shots after rain with low directional light, makes for some spectacular images.

This works very well, while theres a lot of detail and texture in the tiles there still needs to be a focal of some sort. Maybe a spot where there is no tile, just some sort of break in the repetivieness.