I was invited to shoot a charity golf tournament for work and this was the only photo from the day I liked but know it lacks something. Would it have benefited from simply following the rule of thirds or should I have done other adjustments. All criticisms are welcome. Thanks!
Since your sky is magnificent, and the land and your subject are silhouetted, I would go for a rule of thirds composition with 2/3rds of the photo being the glorious sky and 1/3rd the land/subject.
Something like this
Thanks Bill. I appreciate the input. That does change the feel of the photo. I wasn't sure if I should crop out the tree but you version shows it was more of a distraction. Thanks again!
I'm more of an "all in" or "all out" kind of guy.
If you had the whole tree captured, I might've left it ( in a different composition, in its current form it is only a distraction of no value to the point of the photo ).
Any way I see/imagine this photo, no matter the format, I still see it with the tree gone haha.
For example, here's a relatively unorthodox square format
I was so fixated on the golfer I didn't even realize the left edge of tree was cut off. I definitely need to be much more aware of my composition. I always strive to do as much on camera as a I possible can rather than photoshop/lightroom but for some reason rely way to much on cropping after the fact. Thanks for giving me some new perspectives. VERY much appreciated.
You're welcome Scott!
It's kind of a normal thing, we all know that with PhotoShop we can do "wonders" so most of the time in the back of our head there's always this little voice saying "don't be too anxious, you can save it later on the PC" :-)
It happens even to the very best, especially if the case/shot is "time-critical" ( one moment it's there, the next it's gone! ).
And last but not least, a lot of times it takes somebody else to notice even a simple thing we haven't on our own images.
I had something creeping in the frame for example in one of my panorama shots, but I hadn't noticed it throughout the editing & uploading process on various sites until a friend told me on facebook "hey! dude, there's a black thing probably a tree branch creeping in from the left edge of the frame" and I was like "duh, can't be!", but there it was! :D
Thanks Jerry. Very educational insight. It makes sense that since we read left to right our brains are naturally programmed to this with anything. I'll also have to take "eyes attracted to light" aspect into consideration for future shots. Pretty funny about your comment regarding your reflection. Good to know I'm not the only one! Thanks again for your help!