Leica breaks the rules?

[fishric]

Horizontal horizons. Is it or isn't it?
I'm too tight-fisted to buy a view finder for the GR-D, so I practice holding it horizontal, often at waist level (stealth mode) 🙂-).
Richard F.

 

[iml]

I know that view. The sea definitely goes up hill a bit on that part of the prom.

Ian

 

[jayjee]

i think rules should only be broken if you fully understand why they exist...then again i break rules all the time due to ignorance

 

[fishric]

Ian,
I think you're right, the whole town is all askew!
Richard F.

Or do we need glasses?

 

[Ororaro]

I think this whole conversation is rather stu...
The horizon doesn't always have to be straight. I don't know who told you it had to, but whoever it was, that person was wrong. And sadly, it made you believe all those years that "a straight horizon means perfection".

Many of my pics are tilted and I never really cared about having it straight or not. What works as good composition on the spot is what's important. To hell with the generic rules that don't work as soon as one's vision is out of the box.

 

[jbf]

To be quite honest, the "rules of photography" are not rules. Merely guidelines for beginners... Once you learn and master the rules and know how to use them, it is only natural for one to exploit those rules and break them in order to make your image so much more.

If you know why the rules are there in the first place you know how to bend and break those rules to your own needs and to create visual interest, etc.

 

[Didier]

...many still assume that if photo was taken by some big name photogrpaher who is published - it's a good photo. Not always so.

I have also seen many mediocre pictures from "famous" photographers, as well as masterpieces from unknown hobbyists. The online photographer article is nevertheless funny as it's more about the faked commentators than the famous photographers.

...Composition Rules, as someone said before, however, have been around for much longer that photography itself. So, to follow them - is a pretty good policy.

I doubt there is one single composition axiom that stands over all. Italian Renaissance painters for instance saw it different than Flemish Renaissance painters, not talking about other eras, styles and artists. But they do mostly have quite much in common, and it's up to each one's taste how to apply (or break) it.

I do apply rules, but it's not so clear to myself which ones, how and when. Most is done instinctly. And what are the rules when breaking the rules...

In general, the more graphic a composition is, the more attention I give to framing, to proportions, to horizontal/vertical aligning, and so on. The more reportage-kind a picture is, when it's about to show people, and to show what they're doing, framing and tilting gets less important as long as the content is shown as I wanted. But also here, lots of space for rule breaking

...Bob Shell, actually (Didier this one is for you) is one of them - average photographer who was able sell himself well at one point.

As for Bob Shell's pictures, I unfortunately couldn't see his flickr portfolio, because, for reasons unknown to me, some "adult" flickr categories do not show up in Germany and Switzerland, though I've disabled all filters. I have seen some other pictures on his website, which look professional, but not outstanding. But I was several times impressed by how many technical facts he knows by heart, mostly at the CVUG. Btw. I did not defend him "because he's famous" (what he likely not is) or "because I'd be a fan of him", but because I had concerns about the lawsuit. You may read here (CVUG post) why I don't trust jury courts. There was a case not unsimilar to Bob's one here 20 years ago. The alleged criminal was finally acquitted, not because he's not done it, but because the jury was strongly mislead by the prosecutor and no real evidence brought in.

Didier

 

[Bosk]

I'm not sure about the whole tilted-horizon thing, but after reading the earlier posts I decided to visit http://www.rax.is/Index.htm (RAX's website) and I'm awfully glad I did.

Some of those photos are just incredible. Truly stunning work.

 

[rpsawin]

I'm not sure about the whole tilted-horizon thing, but after reading the earlier posts I decided to visit http://www.rax.is/Index.htm (RAX's website) and I'm awfully glad I did.

Some of those photos are just incredible. Truly stunning work.

Amazing work, isn't it! When I looked at the shots on the Leica site I did not think the first shot of the guy sitting/chimney sprouting from his head was up to critical review. I did enjoy the second shot. After looking at his website and getting a sense of the body of work from which these two shots were taken I have only positive comments about his work.

I suspect this guy knows the rules and breaks them fully aware of what he is doing.

Best regards,

Bob