November voting - Effective Use of Negative Space

November challenge winner

  • Total voters
    57
  • Poll closed .
Status
Not open for further replies.
AB22 Easy Tiger

AB22 Easy Tiger

Heaven Branch
Contributor
Usual rules, vote for as many as you like and your votes will be public.

Please try to give a bit of feedback on the pictures, constructive criticism is especially helpful on those for which you didn't vote.

You have seven days to vote.
 


Very difficult choice this month, well done all some cracking pics, I really enjoy this comp

:):)
 
Some cracking pics, Kubicki85 is a great one, difficult shot and workidteltme being my choices.

Kubicki just edged it though
 
My feedback:

2310 Return
At first glance it doesn't really meet the theme, but is a well executed shot. The explanation helps, maybe I'm just shallow.

tom tom macute
A lot of negative space but it doesn't highlight the subject of the picture for me - so not very effectively used. Also the turret seem to be a wee bit OOF to my eyes.

TiredEyes
A "nice" shot of my favourite building, but again, the negative space (and again, there's a lot of it) doesn't seem to have been used to bring out the subject.

Amnorrageordie
Good subject, but see my comments on the shots above - not effective use of NS.

not spavin
My eyes are immediately drawn to the spiral - VOTE

dsOrco
I'd like to have seen more NS and the diagonal line at the bottom right is distracting - otherwise a nice shot.

Steeeeed
A little busy for me - what's the subject? A shame about the ropes(?) over his face.

Elliott
A nice shot again, but I can't see how the negative space (of which there isn't much) is being effectively used.

peachbum
Great use of negative space and colour - VOTE

The Great Soprendo
Too busy for me, sorry.

clyde
Hmm... A lot of NS but it doesn't highlight the subject well enough for me. I'd have been inclined to get in closer, lower down, and lose the sea.

wor kid telt me
Love the atmosphere in this, but I don't think it meets the theme very well.

Kuicki85
The opposite of clyde's for me, could be further out and used more NS

ayesane
If she'd have been on the very right, looking into the shot then this would have got a vote.


Edit: oops, logged in on my Mrs' account by accident. This is Ghost of EH7
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Peachbum for me.
Colourful and quirky and well composed.( not keen on borders though)

There are a lot of good shots that nearly do it for me, but not quite.
But then who am I to judge.
No votes for a poor effort


I think Great Soprendos is a wonderful shot but in a different category maybe.
I can just imagine Orson Well sitting in Ashbrooke making his Cuckoo clock speech on top of that ferris wheel. ( The Third Man)
 
tom tom macute said:
Peachbum for me.
Colourful and quirky and well composed.( not keen on borders though)
Click to expand...
Thank you TomTom macute! I think I've always framed my pictures, as they seem to look better on the computer's white page. I have listened to people's comments though; some like them, some don't, so I have stuck with framing them but on the whole they are quite thin and hopefully not too annoying to the haters of frames. :)
 
tom tom macute said:
Peachbum for me.
Colourful and quirky and well composed.( not keen on borders though)

There are a lot of good shots that nearly do it for me, but not quite.
But then who am I to judge.
No votes for a poor effort


I think Great Soprendos is a wonderful shot but in a different category maybe.
I can just imagine Orson Well sitting in Ashbrooke making his Cuckoo clock speech on top of that ferris wheel. ( The Third Man)
Click to expand...

Thanks mate :lol:. I must admit I was in two minds whether it would be seen as a negative space shot, but the idea was to contrast the bright lights of the attractions with the negative space of the darkness in between. Perhaps would have worked better if the negative space in the shot was bigger.
 
not spavin
ds0rco
peachbum
The Great Soprendo
clyde

Got my votes.

THey're all good photos but not sure some of the others meet the spec as well.

Had a few ideas but never got round to entering. (probably just as well considering how badly I bombed in leading lines :lol: )
 
2310 Return - Too pretentious a shot for me to unravel, no negative space imo.

tom tom macute - S'ok, I like it.

Amnorrageordie - Does nothing for me

not spavin - I like this, I like the dark shadows in the emptiness - VOTE

ds0rco - Look at the concentration on his face, must have been Professor Layton.

Steeeeed - Very messy, rope across his face would've forced me to abandon this shot.

Elliot - Pretty but I suspect high post production colour boosting.

peachbum - Am I looking at a plughole, wtf ?

The Great Soprendo - I know you don't handle harsh criticism very well, so no comment.

clyde - I can feel the cold from here, done it myself but on Roker Pier in mid December, brrrrrrr - VOTE.

wor kid telt me - sorry mate, I can't see your entry - bad picture host ??

Kubicki85 - I like this but I'd of trimmed the bottom off, it looks like it's floating as is.

ayesane - Pretty girl.
 
Spavin and Clyde for me, and Clyde, did they catch owt? Used to fish there meself many moons ago. My entry. At the side of the M8 motorway near Bathgate is a sculpture of a set of five pyramids. The middle three had poppies painted on them. They usually have purple sheep grazing on them. See here.
 
TiredEyes said:
2310 Return - Too pretentious a shot for me to unravel, no negative space imo.

tom tom macute - S'ok, I like it.

Amnorrageordie - Does nothing for me

not spavin - I like this, I like the dark shadows in the emptiness - VOTE

ds0rco - Look at the concentration on his face, must have been Professor Layton.

Steeeeed - Very messy, rope across his face would've forced me to abandon this shot.

Elliot - Pretty but I suspect high post production colour boosting.

peachbum - Am I looking at a plughole, wtf ?

The Great Soprendo - I know you don't handle harsh criticism very well, so no comment.

clyde - I can feel the cold from here, done it myself but on Roker Pier in mid December, brrrrrrr - VOTE.

wor kid telt me - sorry mate, I can't see your entry - bad picture host ??

Kubicki85 - I like this but I'd of trimmed the bottom off, it looks like it's floating as is.

ayesane - Pretty girl.
Click to expand...

No need for that.

I thought Soprendo's shot was very strong, original and made a real effort rather than just arsing around with the crop tool like some.
 
Not Spavin and Peachbum for me, composition and colours work really well, eyes are drawn in from around the "negative space" to the subject.
I liked clydes but didnt vote - the crop seemed odd around the fishermen and the horizon is a bit off.
 
TiredEyes said:
2310 Return - Too pretentious a shot for me to unravel, no negative space imo.
Click to expand...

:):)

Thanks very much, Tired Eyes. I have been waiting with some trepidation to see what you would say!!

I think I got away pretty lightly, there, all things considered!!

Of course being new to this, I need to attempt to establish myself on here, so please, as I have a bit of fun with my reply, (and take the chance to explain my picture) take this in the right way!...Here we go:

Mr. Eyes, Mr. Eyes, or simply….”Tired…” if I may call you that!

Thank you so much for your kindly comments, welcoming a nervous, awkward newbie to the “hallowed turf” of the SMB Photographic Competition.

Having watched your acerbic wit over several months now as you generously reward the creative photographers’ hard fought competitiveness, as a man who display’s “Heisenberg’s Principle” as your avatar, you do yourself down with your claim to fail to understand the picture, of that I’m certain! (See what I did there?)

Pretentious? I don’t think pretentious….this would be pretentious….

With your considerate, encouraging comments over recent months, I have imagined your kindly engrained face, generously framed by a shock of once curly, grey, near white hair, sitting there on your rocking chair, in the far corner of the secure home, as you gently remove every second twitching limb of the unfortunate flying insects daring to hover within inches of you.

You place the disabled creature on the carefully folded tartan rug – with a furtive glance across to check the distraction of your – too busy – carer, calmly wipe the dribble, slowly emerging from the mouth - corner of your long suffering room mate. You seize the moment and deftly remove your reading glasses (sadly there for only decorative purposes) and carefully focus the sun’s rays on the creature’s thorax until the outer waxy cuticle firstly melts, then smoulders, then smokes as you imagine in the far flung corners of your tortured mind the insect’s screams of pain to feed your daily need for the satisfaction of cruelty….” Damn you blue bottle, that will teach you ….!”

…Now I would agree – that is pretentious…

…..The picture? I’m not sure I agree its pretentious. It was an alternative interpretation of “negative space” based around the theme of the Euro Zone / World Financial Crisis. A monetary interpretation. I had believed and understood that the theme for the month was open to a participant’s twist, though I stand to be corrected. The negativity refers to the financial balances many people are experiencing.

I first set the wallet as the object of negative focus (credit cards, debit cards “in the red” leather pockets as a symbol of everyone’s debt) whilst trying to throw the background into a blur by using a wide aperture and keeping the top of the wallet sharply in focus. In my first few shots, I noticed the direction of the edge of the wallet – which looked like the declining economic forecast graphs that are constantly shown in the news. I wanted to keep that shape and try and build it into the following shots.

I then wondered if I could take it a stage further by setting into the background blur a range of photographs of the world economic centres, so printed off and scattered some photographs of the Bank of England, The New York Stock Exchange, The Greek National Parliament and The Irish Parliament and made those the background blur that would be the traditional “negative space” of a photograph. Clearly literally negative spaces in themselves.

Combined, I felt that with so many references to negativity, used both figuratively and photographically, perhaps I had been somewhat over literal - and hence the title.

Sadly, reading back, rather like having to explain a joke’s punch line, perhaps it is pretentious. Perhaps Mr. Eyes is correct and perhaps I have immediately established myself as the SMB Photography corner “Bohr.” (Another Heisenburg reference there for the “Quantum Mechanics”…or is it “Quantum Mechanicists…” amongst us …and yes, I know, I’m explaining my punch line!)

Either which way, Mr. Eyes, thanks very much for your unremitting encouragement and respect and in the future I will try to improve based on your highly constructive criticism and not be such a Planck!! (oh…there I go again!!) :-D

My votes:

Not Spavin – I often vote for your shots – I’d like to think I “get” your photography. Absolutely love the use and position of the spiral shape.

Clyde – Again a big fan of your images. I love the simplicity and the blur of gentle movement of the back fishing rod. Perhaps the wind – perhaps the moment of a “catch.” Either way a fabulous shot.

Wor Kid Telt Me – A brilliant grainy black and white. Love the shapes.

Peachbum: My favourite shot of the month. I would imagine you have hand held over a longish exposure for that – and my best guess is that you had to take loads to capture this one. Brilliant! Perfect even?
 
Nee entry from me this month but here goes -


2310 - An interesting interpretation of the theme. Certainly the most original and the explanation you gave in response to Tiredeyes probably wasn't needed, as I thought it was self explanatory. Welcome to the comp and don't let criticism deter you.

Tom Tom Macute - A nicely taken shot, and nicely composed, but for me it's a little boring and doesn't really do anything for me. Maybe if the shades of grey were a little darker and you ramped the contrast it might have jumped out a bit more.

Tiredeyes - I actually really liked this photo and had it not been so poor in quality (camera phone?) would have liked it more. Your comments towards other entries this month were neither fair, nor constructive. Given that people have taken time out of their day to keep the competition interesting, the very least they deserve is a little respect.

Amnorrageordie - Nice photo and fits the theme well. Just doesn't jump out at me. Would have probably got a vote if it were' for the stiff competition.

not spavin - draws my eyes in, and a nicely composed shot (again) VOTE

Ds0rco - Nice personal photo, and one of the hardest things to do (photo people). You've chopped off the top of his barnet, and theres that annoying distraction in the bottom right corner, but it tells a story and aside from the technical errors, I really like it. VOTE

Steed - Class photo. The rope is a little distracting, but I think it's a great photo and captures the mood perfectly. I'm really struggling at the moment in low light situations, so would be interested to know what the settings were that you used? VOTE

Elliott - A fantastic shot, one that I would be printing for sure. The most interesting thing is the "rainbow" but for me, that detracts from theme. So no vote for you mate. But still a fantastic photo.

Peachbum - Yes, it's a plug hole. But i think it's a nice little shot. The black / gold / white colors go nicely together. The only thing I would have liked to have seen was a little less distortion from the ripples. Makes it look a little blurry.

The Great Soprendo - Not negatively spaced enough for me mate. But it does draw the eye and if the rest was a bit clearer would have put you in contention for a vote - almost!

Clyde - nice colors and effective use of negative space, wouldn't expect anything less. VOTE

wor kid telt me - not enough negative space to get a vote from me. But other than that I think this is a great shot. Nicely edited and has a very industrial, murky feel to it.

Kubiki85 - chop off the black bit at the bottom and it would have been much better. well composed (apart from the bottom), nice colors, right time of year for the shot, just that school boy error thats cost you a vote ;)

ayesne - more ;) nicely lit, pretty girl, and almost a vote from me. As above with ds0rco, you chopped off her head... poor lass :cry: get in closer, push her to the side, and don't chop off her head and that's a belter IMO.
 
:roll:


I really can't see where I have been nasty, just my honest opinion, I have appreciated the shots I liked, I can't really be too constructive as I'm an amateur, I use a phone or a point and click, I have no idea's about ISO/F8/shutter speeds, etc, etc but I know what I like and I know what I don't like.


2310 return - you've now used more than 100 words to explain your shot, in two attempts - there lies your problem, if you have to spend 10mins trying to explain your shot, you've already lost my vote and all the rest of that gobbledegook, no idea, it's probably you trying to explain to me that I'm a twat for not liking your shot, could've just said, you're a twat and be done with it, too much waffling on kid.

;)
 
TiredEyes said:
2310 return - you've now used more than 100 words to explain your shot, in two attempts - there lies your problem, if you have to spend 10mins trying to explain your shot, you've already lost my vote and all the rest of that gobbledegook, no idea, it's probably you trying to explain to me that I'm a twat for not liking your shot, could've just said, you're a twat and be done with it, too much waffling on kid.
Click to expand...

Tired Eyes:

My apologies, I seem to have made some misjudgements here. :oops:

Firstly I did rattle on too much – thanks for pointing that out – and I will learn from it. A quick check reminds me that most people don’t have to explain their pictures. I appreciate that constructive piece of advice.

Secondly, because your avatar sets out Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, combined with your Mathematical joke (which is very funny by the way) in your signature, I thought you came from a Quantum Mechanics background and would appreciate my attempt at some scientific humour, which is, by the way, what the vast majority of my thread was about. If I’d hit the spot – I thought you might have enjoyed that reply, which was my genuine intention. My mistake. ;)

Thirdly, (as I tried to allude to in my reply to your comment) I had worked on the assumption that since you started coming on to the photo competition pages several months ago acting like the pantomime villain – with your blunt and direct comments about other people’s work, that this was your attempt at humour and that you would enjoy receiving something similar in return. My naivety here was patently well wide of the mark – but thank you for clarifying that. :confused:

I decided to join in because I have started really enjoying my photography and wanted to get better at it. If my picture is, in anyone’s opinion, rubbish – I would welcome a comment to that effect – so long as its accompanied by a description of how to make it better. I’m struggling where to go to with “pretentious” to be honest, even though I accept it may be!

Nevertheless – my errors have not and will not put me off engaging with the conversations in this section of the board. I’ve seen how much the regulars have genuinely improved technically and artistically from doing this – and I very much would like to make the same progress….

…Kid! :)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top