A Harbour Shot and.. ...an experiment. It's a while since I've tried anything experimental. I wanted to make the two people at the end of the pier a focus of interest and I knew it...

R.G. Loc: Scotland

...an experiment. It's a while since I've tried anything experimental. I wanted to make the two people at the end of the pier a focus of interest and I knew it would take something extreme. I also thought that if I tried to be subtle about it it probably wouldn't work. Some are probably going to say that my experiment looks too contrived, but in a way that's the point. Subtlety wouldn't have worked. It's not trying to look natural, so the extreme vignette shouldn't come across as a clumsy attempt at a save or a correction.
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Business as usual at the harbour.

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A private exchange.
A private exchange....

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UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

A successful experiment, R.G.!

R.G. Loc: Scotland

UTMike wrote:

A successful experiment, R.G.!

Thank you Mike.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Nice. It worked well.
--Bob

R.G. wrote:

...an experiment. It's a while since I've tried a... (show quote)

R.G. Loc: Scotland

rmalarz wrote:

Nice. It worked well.
--Bob

Thank you Bob.

Cwilson341 Loc: Central Florida

I like it and I think it really accomplished your intended effect!

Craigdca Loc: California

The vignette and simplified foreground definitely helped, but.... this brings up an experiment I’m considering for myself. How can I make the background larger while the foreground remains the same? The technique seems to be to use a longer lens from farther back and I’m looking forward to trying it with the moon over a landmark.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Cwilson341 wrote:

I like it and I think it really accomplished your intended effect!

Thank you Carol. Very reassuring.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Craigdca wrote:

...The technique seems to be to use a longer lens from farther back.....

Yes, that brings the background closer. Whenever I've done that I use the background to decide the framing then use a mixture of positioning and zoom to get the foreground included the way I want. I found it wasn't as obvious or as straightforward as I thought, but it wasn't difficult and a bit of experimenting was all that was needed.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Your experiment paid off!

R.G. Loc: Scotland

jaymatt wrote:

Your experiment paid off!

Thank you John.

ebrunner Loc: New Jersey Shore

R.G. wrote:

...an experiment. It's a while since I've tried a... (show quote)

The vignette does not in any way look clumsy or contrived. By cropping, you have eliminated the items in the foreground that you did not want the viewer spending any time on. The figures are still small; but they are much more prominent in the crop. I think it is important that you retained the two boats. They frame the figures and because of their angle, lead us toward them. I like the cropped experimental version much better than the original. Excellent work.

Erich

R.G. Loc: Scotland

ebrunner wrote:

The vignette does not in any way look clumsy or contrived. By cropping, you have eliminated the items in the foreground that you did not want the viewer spending any time on. The figures are still small; but they are much more prominent in the crop. I think it is important that you retained the two boats. They frame the figures and because of their angle, lead us toward them. I like the cropped experimental version much better than the original. Excellent work.

Erich

Thank you Erich. Effects like that are always a matter of taste and not to everybody's liking. The boats make ideal attention channelers and it would have been perfect if the one on the right had been more to the right a bit. I'll need to have a word with the owner

. I like the vignette not only because it focuses the viewers attention but also because it enhances the feeling of intimacy coming from the meeting at the end of the pier.

BigDaddy Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

Massive improvement. Cropping is perfect and removing the foreground objects worked great. The vignette is strong but works great in this image. I think the boats frame the subject perfectly, wouldn't change a thing.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

BigDaddy wrote:

Massive improvement. Cropping is perfect and removing the foreground objects worked great. The vignette is strong but works great in this image. I think the boats frame the subject perfectly, wouldn't change a thing.

Thank you Big Daddy. Making a focus of the two visitors wasn't a plan till after the event, so hopefully I got two working photos out of it. It's just difficult to gauge objectively when implementing spontaneous course changes. Thanks for the positives.