Wire Tailed - Aligned more to the right

[Tharangini B]

Here is the other version of the Wire-tailed with the birds aligned more to the right. Unfortunately, I could not get one where the birds were smaller, but am hoping this works.

[Ganesh H Shankar]

Tharangini, I think at this point it comes to personal preferences, since there is no right or wrong I prefer this placement over the initial one but prefer the relative scale of the initial image! How choosy our minds can get! Please don't bother much

[Ganesh H Shankar]

I am back on this thread to share a very useful compositional plugin that I used long ago. It is called Golden Crop Plugin. While I hate fixed set of rules I do wonder at how nature created our minds and how choosy it indeed is. Further, nature appeared to have created many things in some way. Why is it so? Only Nature/God knows. I can rebel against these so called 'rules' and choose to place my subject where I marked blue square in the attached image. In fact "I" would love to do that but only if my heart too agrees with my ego! Most often I find my heart agreeing with some of the intersection of these golden lines/golden spirals etc (the dots I marked in red). Probably some of our preferences have been decided by the nature itself. May be your mind prefers some other points of intersections in the attached image. I hope this helps. I hope you don't mind me taking liberty to overlay this frame on your image. I used the Golden Crop Plugin to overlay this. The plugin is free for non-commercial uses (GNU licence). You may use it if you find it useful. The green dots are "rule of thirds", the pink dots fall on golden ratios. My "Ego" placement is marked in blue (which my heart don't agree with often!)

compoistion_points.jpg (593.46 KiB) Viewed 5429 times

Thumbnail link to the image post on the gallery:

[Tharangini B]

Wow, this is intense and so informative. I am deeply honoured that this image has brought up this opportunity for me to learn so much more too. It might take me a little while to comprehend and understand this, but I'll put it to work and see how best it can benefit. I usually follow my feelings/emotions during the compositions. But I am sure it will make an immense difference to combine it with a scientific approach too. Thank you so much for spending your valuable time with this image and sharing it with me. Truly appreciate it and I'll definitely work with it. Thanks again...

[Ganesh H Shankar]

Tharangini,

But I am sure it will make an immense difference to combine it with a scientific approach too

Here is my humble submission. I think in typical "Art" forums "science" is a misplaced, boring set of mathematical equations and rules. Interestingly those equations are crude approximations of how Nature works. It is a humble attempt to understand "truth" behind Nature. It is much more than blindly following "a set of fixed formulas" - that of course is boring, for example when we apply it routinely to compositions. I understand that critique from artists very well. However, there is more to the so called "science" than what a typical "artist" think it is. I strongly feel the so called "science" is "work in progress" to understand the real art (not the fake/personal opinions) - the art of Nature. The point is, of course I too go with my emotions while I compose images. Incidentally many times I find my subjects seem to fall near one those intersections of lines and curves even when I don't use this overlay. I attribute this to Nature which probably has implanted that taste in us, as much as the reason why shell of a snail took the shape of "Golden Spiral". In fact it is other way round - we figured out "Golden Spiral" from shell of a snail.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all sciences - Albert Einstein

[Prashanth Sampagar]

Tharang, I too like this version for the spread of lines and position of the bird. As Ganesh said the earlier version had the scale.

@Ganesh, thanks for explaining the golden spiral. It's a nice way to study composition techniques, a very good reference. As you said, there are many images that may not fit this rule but still appealing. I feel, this or any other rules are just reference points, these rules are to help the artist and they should not become the limitations.

My "Ego" placement is marked in blue (which my heart don't agree with often!)

As you said "my ego" should take the last seat, breaking the rule just for the sake of breaking it may not help much.

Best regards,
Prashanth

[Tharangini B]

I agree. With something as complex as nature, applying any kind of formula to it optimally is also a huge talent and it cannot be done without understanding the nuances if it intricate working system. That being said, considering that nature also follows the fibonacci sequence in a whole lot of places, this plugin may also help me find the right balance between science and emotions. Of course, I guess what works, in the end, is what truly speaks to us. Though like what both of you have rightly pointed out, the positioning of the subject should not be determined by the 'ego'. I hope to use this plugin just to explore more possibilities of connecting with an image with my emotions.

Thanks so much and regards,
Tharangini