DSLR Photography Forum

I worked with this picture and I have some doubts....

I cropped this picture square because the space at the right after the post processing looked weird and didn't add anything to the picture..... the question is; do I have to follow the rule of thirds in a square picture?

Other question is about the post processing... Do you think it is too much? Does it look good or I go back and start again?

Thanks a lot for your comments

I like the effect you added to the image Irma. I thought at first that maybe it needed to be a touch lighter to show the black berries more but as I played with the image in PS I realized after a touch of lightening the window or whatever it is in the background became more evident. Now, I have a feeling this isn't a very small bush. Boysenberry bushes here can overtake a lot of land if allowed to do so. Can you go back and get the image again from a different point of view? Keep the post processing the same. Even the square crop is fine imo.

You don't need to follow any rule that you don't want to follow.

However, having said that, the rule of thirds is equally applicable to square photos as to rectangular ones.

Generally speaking (and generalizations aren't always accurate), in a photograph, you want to capture the viewer's interest, and one method of doing that is to keep their eye moving over the whole photograph - leading lines, movement, rythm, etc are all methods of keeping the viewer's eyes moving. The rule of thirds is another method. By offsetting the subject, the viewer needs to "consider" all the other portions of the photograph - even if the rest of the photo is blank or negative space. If you place your subject dead center, the viewer looks at that and stops - the subject is so obvious that the viewer's eyes do not seek out what might exist in the outer parts of the photo. Dead center positioning effectively stops eye movement.

Like all rules, this one is made to be broken, and there are many subjects that work beautifully with a dead center composition.

There are also mathematical and artistic reasons for the rule of thirds - if you do a search on the site, you will find some really intriguing posts by Mitch (Slejhammer) on Fibonnacci sequences and the rule of thirds. Needless to say, there are many reasons why that type of composition works, and a lot of them we are only dimmly aware of as viewers.

Enough tedious lecturing.

Nice post processing on this photo, by the way...

Best
Rob

Thanks Toad for your comment. Yes I remember Mitch posts about the rule of thirds and Fibanacci sequences, it was very interesting. It is never tedious, when you give us a comment like this one, it is always very interesting and teach us a lot. I am happy you like the post processing

Colin, it is a pity, I can't take the picture again, because the bush is very far from my home. It was a big bush along the road, where we were taking landscape pictures... The blue spots is the light coming through the leaves, and I got just one more different composition but it doesn't work because the sky is overexposed. It was difficult to move with the tripod near the bushes, the grass was high and the ground a bit muddy... I will go tomorrow to a road near my home... It has a lot of bushes, perhaps I can find something interesting...

Here is a picture before I darkened it, and before I cloned some blue spots of light... Maybe it would be good at this moment of the post processing to make a mask and continue darkening the rest of the picture without touching the berries...

Thanks for your comment

Irma, I like this one much better than the first. Because the spots are uniform around the image they are not as much a distraction as they are in your first post.

I was out yesterday and took some photos of the boysonberry bushes (I think also known as bramble berry) we have here.
However, the afternoon sun was just much too strong and it seems they weren't all quite ripe yet as many were still green.

As I was saying, I went out and tried my hand at capturing some images of bramble/boyson berries. I figured I'd give it a go even though the lighting was strong.

Thoughts,comments?

Wow!! This is a bush with berries .... Funny to see that in the place I was there were just very few and here you have a great bunch... Is this a wild bush or it grows in a garden, with special care?

I love your picture Colin, it has a lot of berries and I like that you got the cicle of maturation... (? sorry my translator doesn't give me the proper word, I think) I like the light and colors... and they look yummier than mine Your background is really great!

Thanks for the name as well, I am not really good at berries' names... I don't know them. This sort of berries are taken in Mexico as exotic fruit... at least in the south part of Mexico where I lived my last 12 years... It has tropical weather and they don't grow there. You can find these ones just in the north of Mexico I believe, and in Mexico city in those shops that sell exotic fruits, but they are very expensive... It was very nice to see them here growing in gardens and along the roads...

Thanks for your comment on my picture... I will keep my lightened version then...