Citi Hall, London, on a gloomy day

[Tony M]

I was visiting London in late February on a typically wet day, when I spotted this lady in red crossing in front of City Hall and couldn't resist the temptation to do the obvious.

I think the diagonals created by the paving stones and the building make the photo interesting. The red is a bit kitsch perhaps, but it does create a point of interest ... what do you think?


Olympus EM1 Mk II, 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO lens @ 12mm, 1/160s, f/5, ISO 200

Tony

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured.

[Manfred M]

Two thoughts for you Tony:

1. Do you really need all that foreground and sky?

2. The "lady in red' makes this image. Without it, the image is much less effective. I'm not sure why you feel it is "kitch"; either it works or it doesn't and that is what really matters.

[billtils]

2. The "lady in red' makes this image. Without it, the image is much less effective. I'm not sure why you feel it is "kitch"; either it works or it doesn't and that is what really matters.

+1 to that. Colour popping went out of fashion some years ago but that means it was over-done, not that it doesn't have a role, and it works well here.

I look forward to the day when long exposure creamy waterfalls go the same way ...

[selig1656]

Nice creativity , that takes a some what dull picture into something of interest . Too much sky and fore frontal plane .

[Manfred M]

+1 to that. Colour popping went out of fashion some years ago but that means it was over-done, not that it doesn't have a role, and it works well here.

I look forward to the day when long exposure creamy waterfalls go the same way ...

I had an interesting discussion with a photographer that I know quite well (he does a lot of professional training for Canon) on a closely related topic.

Sequence of events is that some new technique comes out; whether it is HDRI, partial decolourization, long exposure, etc.

The photographers that start the trend are generally experienced and good and the initial impressions are "Wow!". Other inexperienced see this and figure by applying these techniques to their own mediocre images and they get Wow responses from their friends on social media without any thought or effort. More is better and any thoughts of subtlety in applying these techniques never occurs to them.

The rest of us get tired of seeing over-processed, poorly done images and start associating these techniques with poor quality work and stop using them for this reason.

Every once in a while an image like this one comes along and we like it, in spite of the technique and we somehow seem to have to make excuses for liking it. That is our problem. There are excellent works out there that employ these and other techniques.

I personally tried to learn to look at images impartially. A good image is a good image, regardless of how it is made.

Just to add one more thought; I was the the photo club yesterday for a judging and one of the winning images was a partially colourized B&W image that prominently featured a red element.

[Stagecoach]

Great image in all respects Tony.

[Tony M]

Thanks to you all for your comments. It's nice to get feedback, both positive and negative; without that it's hard to critically appraise one's own photos.

Two thoughts for you Tony:
1. Do you really need all that foreground and sky?
2. The "lady in red' makes this image. Without it, the image is much less effective. I'm not sure why you feel it is "kitch"; either it works or it doesn't and that is what really matters.

Hi Manfred. I can imagine a composition you are describing, and I would have to crop it significantly to achieve it. (I didn't have time to experiment as the lady wasn't cooperating!)

But to me, the foreground is an important part of the composition: the diagonals in it lead the eye towards the building; from there, the eye follows the slant of the building along another diagonal. And as a consecuence, I think there needs to be some sky so thatthe building doesn't seem squashed along one boundary. I could perhaps reduce the amount a bit; I'll have to experiment.

And I agree that the lady makes the image more effective. I do like it; I just thought I'd pre-empt some criticisms of it by calling it kitsch; or perhaps clichéd would be closer to what I wanted to say. But as you said in your second post, an over-used technique ought not be discarded out-of-hand; there *are* good uses for them (or they wouldn't have become popular in the first place).

I look forward to the day when long exposure creamy waterfalls go the same way ...

Too right Bill. I like a bit of froth in my cream...

I have another B&W photo taken in London with THREE red elements in it! And they're not ladies in red coats, or Beefeaters.

I'll post it in a separate thread soon...

Tony

[Manfred M]

Hi Manfred. I can imagine a composition you are describing, and I would have to crop it significantly to achieve it. (I didn't have time to experiment as the lady wasn't cooperating!)

I was thinking a crop along these lines:

[Tronhard]

For what it's worth...
One of the challenges to me is the significant distortion caused by the perspective effect of the camera being tilted up from level and then building being an odd shape. So, I tried an experiment to reduce one of the elements - the globe is now round and the verticals on the left are more so. I also increased the crop to get lead lines from the corners for the fencing on the left, and the line of boards leading on the right to the lady in red.

[Tony M]

Manfred, the crop is certainly effective. I like it very much, and I cannot immediately decide which one I prefer. I'll have to do what I often do when processing - keep several versions on hand for a few days and come back occasionally to view them. Eventually one of them agrees more with me than the other. Thanks for giving me your feedback.

Trev, the verticals on the left are indeed more vertical, but the smaller ball looks a bit flat to me. I imported your version into LR and used the radial filter (forced to a circle) to see how round it was, and it does appear a bit squashed.

[Jim A]

I like Manfred's crop Tony and also think that the lady in red works well. In fact, I prefer it to your one with the buses. Here the lady complements the image, whereas with the buses there seems to be a competition between them and a very interesting building.

[Tony M]

Thank Jim for your comment. I'm liking Manfred's crop more each time I view the photos.

I agree with you about the lady in red; she does complement it more than the other photo with the red buses.

Tony