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Image Review: Grass and Field

Lesson 38 from: Mastering the Art of Photography

Chris Weston

Image Review: Grass and Field

Lesson 38 from: Mastering the Art of Photography

Chris Weston

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Lesson Info

38. Image Review: Grass and Field

Chris shows how an image that looks pretty on the surface, misses the visual narrative, and sets about making changes that better match the photographer’s story.

Lessons

Class Trailer
1

Class Introduction - Three Steps To Creative Photography

03:48
2

Firing The Creative Mind - Part 1: The Camera Points Both Ways

03:10
3

Firing The Creative Mind - Part 2: Letting Go Of Judgement

06:53
4

Firing The Creative Mind - Part 3: Detaching From Outcomes

04:12
5

Practicing Mindfulness In Photography

02:43
6

Finding The Visual Narrative

02:39
7

Behind-the-scenes: Naples

07:52
8

Seeing Beneath The Surface Of Things

02:30

Lesson Info

Image Review: Grass and Field

I've included this image because on the face of it, it's a really lovely shot. Warm, inviting tones, a beautiful sunset swallows flitting open countryside. What's there not to like? But it's also a great example of something I said right at the very beginning of this module that the purpose of these image reviews is to ask the question. Does the image tell the story the photographer wanted to tell, and in this case, I don't think it does. So let me explain. The title of this image is field and grass. So let me talk you through the individual compositional elements in the frame that together make up the visual story. The horizontal format means my eyes starts on the left side, and immediately I reached the fence. The fence being a physical and therefore visual barrier stops me going any further into the picture space. So my eye follows the line of the fence all the way down to the road or track the road, then takes me down the far right side of the frame until it disappears in the dista...

nce. I have now left the image, and I haven't even noticed the field or the grass as it's shot. It's a very pretty scene, but it's incongruous with the photographers intention, and that's why I've included it in this review. To get closer to that intent, I would use the fence in a different way. As we see the scene here, the fields and grasses run up through the center of the frame. So first of all, I would turn the camera vertical. Now the fence becomes a frame of what lies beyond. Rather than follow its line down the road, we stand against it observing the scene. The grass is in the middle ground and the fields beyond. Other than that, there's nothing I would change at the scene. I might have used a slightly wider lens to capture the fullness of the setting sun, but that's about all now for me. Both versions work. They are both good pictures. They simply tell different stories. But this one is closer to the story the photographer wanted to tell, and that is the reason we take photographs to express ourselves

Ratings and Reviews

Gary Hook
 

Wow, what a wonderful journey. I love the concept of telling a story with one's photos and as I go through past images, I'm seeing them in a much different perspective. That's the good news, The bad? The lost opportunities I never 'saw' before; however that is a good thing. There is so much to internalize with the material so that it can get out of the head and into the 'heart'. I also found the concept really helps me with composition, both in camera and post. Biggest take away, as Chris underscored in his closing, is to slooooow down, take the time and feel it. Don't be so quick to leave one scene as there remain other aspects, yet to be discovered. A great experience that I truly enjoyed Thank you

Glenda
 

I loved this course - in particular the latter part of it in which he demonstrated how post processing lets you really tell the story of the image. Another fabulous course. Thanks Chris & thanks Creative Live.

Abdullah Alahmari
 

Thanks a lot to mr. Chris Weston This course is great and It is a 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 course for me. Beside the other course ( mastering photographic composition and visual storytelling) both courses are Complementing to each other and highly recommended.

Student Work

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