Another Shot from the Rusting Vehicles Series: Feedback Apreciated

[lightdrunk]

[LeoLeo]

Ok Doug,

Let's do like this. I will ask you some questions, and, please, answer (even to yourself):
1. Who is your subject in this picture ? I mean THE SUBJECT, that one who "force you to push the button"
2. It is my picture balanced ?
3. Did I choose the right angle of view ? (up/down/left/right/sided/close/far....)
4. Do I have a degree of symplicity in my picture
5. Do I share my emotions in this picture?

Now, let's look a bit:
1. Those canisters are in complete competition with the front part of the car, and your subject is not clear. Also background is extremly bussy.
2. Without that closet from right, is ballanced over diagonal, which is ok
3. Pictures from eye level sight is not allways the best point of view. A close up on top of those 4 canisters is a picture, from left side another, a lower angle near that rusty fender to "frame" the greenbox (or what might be), a different picture, just to give you some examples.
4. Think to the minimal bricks of image: point, line, shape, texture and colour. which one or two are representative for your image ?
5. We are different people, and we feel differently, but your picture is telling us how hot it was, how rusty were those abandoned things, and so on ?

I hope I was not to harsh, and apologise if, but it is very hard to give feedback on a "documentary" image, except "yep, are rusty"

Hope it helps,
Leo

[lightdrunk]

I'm moved by this farm equipment because of what has happened to the independent farmer, and how many of them have failed because of the corporate based economy. Leo, your questions are good ones. I think the busyness is the subject, the "mess" that indicates subtext. It looks almost post apocalyptic, a kind of economic Pompeii, as if the time in a certain way of life was frozen.

[tbob]

First off: too many differing items. You have a lot to choose from here. but you need to settle on one concept. For instance the milk cans, or the truck front, or the chains on the wall or whatever you desire to be the focal point.

Second: Chuck out the yellow tin. Unless you have deep moral reservations or are a purist about changing the situation as you find it, sometimes a little constructive rearranging is needed. The yellow tin is just too much of an eye magnet to be allowed with those poor old tins.

Third: the expanse of concrete leaves a somewhat sterile void right down the centre of the image. It is good that it is a diagonal from a composition point of view, but it leads to that nasty yellow scene stealer again. The concrete is bright so it attracts the eye with no reward although it is effectively the largest item by far in the image.

Hope this hasn't been too harsh. You have a lot of interesting elements here.

[LeoLeo]

Doug,

If the business/economical situation is the "engine", the previous picture (post) was more story telling than this one. Wide angle lens are better for this, simply because of coverage, a large ruined space, where nature is comming back. Even then, you should have a single subject, as main subject, to ilustrate your point of view.

Also, B&W conversion might help, especially when you are working with lines, texture shapes.

Please, don't be offended, but I recomend you to take a look to Robert Frank and "The Americans", or Dorothea Lange.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Frank

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Lange

Their work on Great Depression is (here I don't have enough words to illustrate it), and are somehow close to your subject.

Also, I forgot to put it on the first post. Work the shoot. Try various approaches, different angles, settings, lighting conditions, but, be awared, not what we see and plese us, looks good in the picture. I've learned that in the harsh way

Thanks for posting,

Leo

[pinakibaidya]

Doug,I am new to this community.Don't take it otherwise.I think a low point of view and more tight composition could improve your photo.Even the rusted cannisters could be good subject.

[lightdrunk]

Walker Evans Rusty Cars:





Is the multiplicity of subjects too busy here?

[Soma Jones]

Walker Evans Rusty Cars:



Ha! Good one. Here is an example of multiple similar items en masse becoming a single subject. (Thanks for posting that Evans photo)


Is the multiplicity of subjects too busy here?

[arith]

I think I would have moved the yellow thing out and moved the containers closer to the rusted truck; but I think the subject is everything.

[Geoff F]

For me, Doug, if you crop tighter on the left side, everything falls into place.

Not sure if that will allow you to use a 'standard' crop size though; but if you have already cropped a little there should be plenty of space to work with.

[lightdrunk]

Ah, here's a busy, cluttered shot by Richard Misrach.

[LeoLeo]

Walker Evans Rusty Cars:




Is the multiplicity of subjects too busy here?

Well Doug,

The subject here is the "cars graveyard". A pattern on rusty cars, on a BIG empty space (actually, the conglomeration of the cars made the pattern so expresive). Look at the lines that are starting from the left to horizont line, from left to right side of the frame (3 cars, 4 cars, 4 cars, and so on). Patterns are busy by nature, but we expect to find "order", that's why we love patterns.

Beside that, if you take a closer look, you will see a subtile change in tonality of the lover left car, where the front it is so dark. To ballance that, is that tree trunk/pillar from the right side.

To make it more compelling, the groung have 80% of the entyre frame, and a thin line of trees to put more accent on that waste empty space.

I really hope my explanations helps you to make better images, because this is why all we are here ( to advance ourselfs as photographers), and one way to improve is to be able to see what is wrong. The worst atitude is indifference of others, lack of feedback, not a non-flattering comment. Ask everybody, in photography we are lerning mostly from our mistake, from those "bad pictures" and not from those happy accidents.

Now a quick look of the second picture:
Subject is .. a boat in top of a gas station/convenient store/shop after a flood . Look how is playing with the lines. There is a fliped car in the fore ground (left), from there you go to rusty car, then to that concrete building (very right), move a bit up following the curved line from right, and go back to the subject following the street? line and electic lines, back to electric pilar, which is mirrored in the water, to help you close that elipse, and to isolate the subject.

Also image works because of tonal range. Sky, water, boat side and flipped car side are almost identical.

Hope it helps,
Leo