The Photographers' Corner
"If you look at some of the most expensive photos ever sold, they wouldn't survive internet critiques either:"
I suspect these were purchased by collectors; more interested in value than visual interest. It's often a status thing. Neither is my cup of tea, as the compositions don't hold my interest for long. The photographers, however, each created a following for a specific reason, it seems.
To each, however, their own...
Funny, Paul, I don't like the line aspect of the Rhein because it tends to draw my eye off the sides of the composition lol.
Initially, the eye is normally captured by the point of highest contrast. In Rhein, that appears to be the bright part of the sky middle frame, just above the horizon. The contrast of the the highlights in the water is greater, but they are too many, I think, so the eye is captured by the sky, instead. My eye seems to follow the horizon line to the edge of the frame, but the photographer has burned in the sides, so the eye is turned upward, where the darker sky keeps the eye moving to the opposite ( also burned in) sky, back down to the horizon line and center of the image. The detail of the water provides interst, but nothing leads the there naturally from the sky, so it takes a conscious effort on the part of the viewer to break the barrier of land between sky and water. Once looking at the water, even though there is nice detail there, the lines created by the shore lead the eye off the side of the image which, to me, is desirable. Somehow the eye should be redirected back into the frame, preferably back towards center again.
The longer the composition keeps my eye inside the image, directing it to different areas of interesting detail, the more I appreciate it.
Just my thoughts..
Addendum: I think our viewing of the image is diminished, because we are not seeing it in its actual size. The effects are probably more powerful were we standing in front of the 6x12 original.
Looking at a larger image, the eye does seem able to cross the land boundary from sky to the brighter part of the river just below, and I noticed the outside edges of the river are burned in, and the desire for the eyes to leave the sides of the frame decreased.
Some very subtle manipulations of the image. I'm liking it a bit better, but I think there's still something lacking.