Critique "Content" - Ipswich (Aldeburgh beach)

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Simon
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Leaving home this morning at 3am for a two hour drive, my daughter and I watched the sun come up in beautiful Aldeburgh, in Suffolk. Please let me know what you think, more about the composition than anything else.
Many thanks
SimonContent.jpg
 
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I like the scene but the 'component parts' (grass, boat, houses) feel a bit lost for me.
I think I would have got in a bit closer and possibly slightly further to the left but always difficult to see what your eyes actually saw.
 
It seems to me that it's really a photo of the sky, which is a nice sky but you I think you wanted the boat, so I think that should really dominate the frame.
 
I was trying to show the boat in it's environment, which a large expanse of wild and exposed emptiness.
 
I didn't notice the name of the dinghy at first but having seen that it makes more sense.

My take on the composition -

For me the beach vegetation on the left is unnecessary and even distracting. I don't know whether it would have been possible, but I would have moved to the right and got a bit closer to exclude that patch. The boat would be on the left-hand side of the image and the houses on the right, with an expanse of beach ahead and the sky above.
 
I don't mind the patch of grass. Quite like it in fact as it makes three objects in the picture - grass, boat, buildings.

The one thing that caught my eye is that the right hand corner of the transom and most of the far gunwale are pretty much touching the horizon. It's usually best for objects to break the horizon line or sit below it - unless there's a good reason for them not to. It only takes a small change in position (lower) to make this happen.
 
I quite like it with the grass too, but IMHO just a small crop tidies it up and satisfies 'the thirds' a bit better.

beach.jpg
 
It is nice and I think it needs some off the bottom but the sky should remain It would work nicely in mono
 
When I first saw it (and not the comments) I wondered what the subject was. Boat? Grass? Buildings? All three are a bit lost in the frame (for me).

Reading the comments, I saw you said...
I was trying to show the boat in it's environment, which a large expanse of wild and exposed emptiness.

Those buildings clutter any feeling of emptiness for me. I'd be inclined to step around to the right and reframe the image against a simple background of land, sea & air. Grass is optional :) It'll probably be harder to work the composition as I guess it could be argued that the buildings and grass add balance.

Has promise IMO!
 
Nice pic. Seen many of this scene. The crop above is nice by Trevor but I would've left in much more of the sky. The buildings are fine IMHO. I have seen some nice isolated shots of the boat which Ian above suggests and you could have a go at that on another visit.
 
Thank you all. It just goes to show how personal an image is and how there is no right or wrong.
Below is a very quick edit of the same boat with, I think, some of the suggestions. I'm sorry the boat has broken the horizon but I am only 5' 5" and I couldn't get high enough!! next time I go I will take a crate :)

rsz_img_8094.jpg
 
Thank you all. It just goes to show how personal an image is and how there is no right or wrong.
Below is a very quick edit of the same boat with, I think, some of the suggestions. I'm sorry the boat has broken the horizon but I am only 5' 5" and I couldn't get high enough!! next time I go I will take a crate :)

View attachment 291383
No need to get higher, get lower and raise the transom above the horizon line. It only needs to be a midge's higher than the horizon. ;)
 
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