Guam, Derelicte'

[bowneracing99]

Was attempting to do some street/derelict photos, the only thing that really caught my eye was this. Any help on composure with stuff like this would be greatly appreciated, i always shoot landscapes, and think its time to expand. C&C always welcome, thanks all!



And for irony points...

[Mike Buckley]

In the second one, I wonder if the irony of the unclean sign would have been emphasized if you had shot from the opposite side of the wall because of the positioning of the word, "clean."

In the first one, the first thing that my eye sees are the blown highlights of the palm fronds. If you can fix those highlights so they aren't the first thing that we see, your image would be greatly improved. I realize my comment doesn't explicitly attend to a compositional detail as you asked, but the issue I mention does weaken the overall impact of the composition.

[bowneracing99]

Thanks, not sure why i didn't do that initially now that you mention it!



Added a graduated filter to try and help!

[Mike Buckley]

Much improved! Now consider cropping the right side just to the right of the tree that is to the right of the concrete block. Doing that places greater emphasis on the graffiti for me.

Also try sharpening it a bit without adding artifacts. I realize that the palm fronds will remain blurred because you didn't stop their action of blowing in the wind, but the parts of the image that aren't moving are a bit soft to my eye.

[bowneracing99]

Once more, with feeling!

[Mike Buckley]

This third version is definitely my favorite. It very effectively tells your story on several levels.

[bowneracing99]

Thanks for the guidance!