Very basic question on composition

[vladimir]

Hi Paul,
Thanks for your comments, and for "good job"
Obviously - you and the Architect have very different opinions. And I am somewhere in the middle.
About the brightness - I don't think it's clipped (I better double check). But as long as it's not - it also becomes a matter of taste - what's "too bright" vs. "just enough", right?
Overall - I am slightly disappointed to find out that there are no clear Rules, which govern composition (or brightness for that matter), even in an extremely simple case like this; and what is more pleasing to about 50% of people, becomes less pleasing to another 50%.
This, frankly speaking, hinders my motivation to read tutorials and other guides on composition. Why are they useful, if it's all a matter of taste anyway?.. Might as well stick to my own taste, because that should take precedence anyway (as Mal would say )

[Goldcoastgolfer]

So if you'd had the poll such that the question was "Do you like this photo of #1?" without introducing the variable of photo #2 in, I'm sure you would have had the majority liking the photo, with a couple of "suggestions" on what people feel is better.

From my perspective, the point of studying tutorials and other materials on photography is to gather other information that we can use to improve on. It is in effect, getting the opinions of others (because at the end of the day that's all rules are, even if the majority believe them to be correct) and then learning from them.

Where people get tripped up I think is when they decide that the rules are everything. In fact, the rules (I prefer to think of them as guidelines) are there to open our perspective up to other possibilities beyond what we know. Once we have that information assimilated, the trick is to take all of these guidelines and opinions and further refine and enhance our style of photography. That in itself can become a life long journey. However if you were never to explore other people's viewpoints (or rules), you would only ever be locked into what you know in the here and now.

As they say, rules are meant to be broken. It's how new, more imaginative and creative pieces ultimately get created. It's the same as how Einstein created the Theory of Relativity where previously Newtonian Physics had been the previous benchmark of scientific rules (I'm actually just making that up but you get the gist). Rules and opinions are not everything, but used wisely they can help grown and enhance your style of photography