hi my name is Tim shields I'm a landscape photographer and I am
announcing the winner of the leading lines photo challenge which we hold
weekly on the Tim's photos Academy Facebook sites I'm coming to you from
where am I in the middle of this trip Coeur d'Alene Idaho on the way to
Glacier National Park Montana so I am very impressed by the level of quality
of the entries in this particular photo challenge we have well over 100 entries
I'm going to show you the top entries and also try and go through some of the
photos and make suggestions and tips for improvement then I'm going to announce
the winner going to announce the winners prize and I am also going to announce
the next photo challenge so let's get rolling
I am looking for photos that highlight the principle of framing in the
composition and I'm also looking for an impressive photo overall something that
I'm going to want to frame and put on my wall because it's fine art and that is
what the winning photo is going to be fine art suitable for framing ready for
the wall let's get rolling the first photo is from Oso Seoul v this is Norway
I love this photo such a beautiful beautiful reflection but I will say that
this photo can be improved by having a little bit more Headroom in the sky a
little bit more room there and one way that I can think of to do that would be
lower the camera down closer to the ground or even move the camera back from
the shoreline and maybe just a little bit more foreground and a little bit
more sky but overall this is just such a beautiful photo Ursa the next one is
from Roger Kelly great example of framing where you've got the city
between these two trees if I was to improve this photo I would like to see
these people that are on the right side of the frame moved into the frame and I
know these may not be the people that you were with Roger when you took this
photo it may have been impossible but I am critiquing right now if these if this
group of people with these red chairs was in between
two trees completely this would be a ten out of ten but as it is it's a fantastic
photo and good work Alan Stott submitted this one from the Grand Tetons
he's got the barn framed in between the trees I love it it's a great photo not
much to critique here there's a lot of sky
he's got 2/3 sky one-third land I'm thinking that he framed it that way
because there's there are so many interesting clouds it's very unusual
that you would have 2/3 of a photo being sky but in this case it does work nice
photo Peter Oh II submitted this one Peter
usually has some great photos and lots of sky in this one sue to improve I
would say we do need some foreground here it just seems cut off there's
something missing I want to see I want to see the bottom of these buildings
here but what an amazing composition this is beautiful sky color great
framing Roger Kelly submitted this one this is also great frame framing you've
got the city skyline inside the branches and the leaves and in order to improve
this one I would say it needs some more contrast I would recommend bumping up on
the dehaze slider which is a fantastic little tool that you can use in
Lightroom the dije slider really increases the the punch and the contrast
in photos in Lightroom but this is a good photo I like it
this one from Eric Olbermann and a great example of framing but to critique it
this foreground is boring it's just gravel if if there could have been a
more interesting foreground another thing to look for and it may not have
been possible with this particular framing but to look for it's the fact
that these branches are intersecting into the buildings maybe it was possible
to lower the camera down and not have the branches intersecting the buildings
but great job Eric this is a good photo Calogero dimino submitted this one
another Italian classic most likely from Venice and this is just the most classic
of framing shots framing and reflection very nice
photo I don't have much to say in terms of improvement on this one he converted
it to black and white which is a great technique to use when you don't have
fantastic colors to start with nice photo Serge Corolla submitted this one
at Sydney Australia and this is a fence this round this is actually just an
element in a fence and he put the Opera House in the middle of it I think this
is so creative I love this photo the lighting is great it's very interesting
it would have been really cool if the whole Opera House could have been fit
inside the circle but probably that wasn't possible but good job on this one
search Tonia Maria leapin submitted this one a great leading line going right
down the middle great framing very nice one Tonia Tim
point oven shot this one of the Seattle Scott skyline and I was standing beside
to him when he shot this only a few days ago from Kerry Park it was great to meet
you Tim and I love this photo what can be said about it it's it's pretty darn
perfect beautiful sky beautiful light coming off the buildings there's a
reflection coming off the buildings from the the sunset that's behind Tim it's
framed in by the dark trees on the bottom absolutely gorgeous photo no
critiquing on this one it's really good this one from Jan Galland beautiful
framing job with this log entrance to the Black Mountain Ranch drama in the
sky drama in the clouds leading line with the road mountains in the middle
awesome I love this one Tommy Ramone Anana Lee Larson from Norway Tommy just
joined the group and like two minutes after joining the group he dropped this
photo in and I was really shocked with the quality of this photo it's a
beautiful one you've got a leading line down the center you've got framing
between the right side and the left side you have long exposure that smoothed out
the water created reflections also there's the element of simplicity
with this photo it's not overly confusing it's not busy it's just we
know what we should look at beautiful colors this is a great photo and Tommy
you should be printing this as big as you can and putting this on your wall
great work Alan stud submitted this one Grand
Tetons again the Cunningham cabin frames the Grand Teton he said and
I really like the framing here with the mountains in the background I like the
fact that in the framing there's something interesting as well it's not
just some concrete frame it's it's got texture lights and darks and it makes me
want to look at it this is a very nice photo
this one from Stan wash Leske and this eagle is like wow look at the face on
that eagle you do not want to mess with him or her framed in by the branches on
the tree beautiful color super tack sharp photo absolutely gorgeous Nowell
Benidorm submitted this one I like it texture in the foreground texture on the
walls a beautiful sunset in the background inside the frame in order to
improve on this one I would have recommended a shot that was taken using
using bracketing so that would create ultimately an HDR image so that we could
have had just a little bit more light on the foreground on the framing because I
think it's it's so interesting seeing all of these ancient bricks and it just
seems a little bit too hazy around the outside for my liking and that would
have been corrected through bracketing but I I love this photo he did a great
job with it this one from Nick tea from Sydney this is a Wow photo look at the
framing of this arch look at the texture of the stone inside the arch not the
most interesting foreground here but you do have a leading line long exposure
blur from a car he has used a small aperture opening which creates the star
effect on all of the lights on the bridge I think that the blue
they're toning looks super cool I think this is a really really interesting
photo I like it a lot good job Nick this one from Steve Reynolds and there's
a framing here using the top row of these clouds beautiful foreground on the
beach leading line leading right to the light leading line also from all the
streams of water there's texture in the sand beautiful coloring not much to
critique here it's it's a really good job notice the rule of thirds as well
he's got the horizon line on the top third and so the bottom two-thirds is
land on this one top one-third is sky absolutely a beautiful photo this one
from John Phillips this is another fantastic photo look at the framing
inside the tree branches a beautiful starburst son that's just creeping over
the top of the mountains there are no Sun flares that are going on here which
is a great problem that he has overcome in this shot super interesting
foreground the old fence the the short grass the tall grass colored sky texture
with the clouds what more can you want this is this is a great photo and now we
come to the winner of the framing photo challenge and for the winner I had to
ask myself which photo out of the 100 plus images do I want to print and frame
and put on my wall and let me just tell you this that oftentimes in photography
contests the winning photo is the simple photo the one where you know what you're
supposed to look at where your eye is drawn to the main subject immediately
and almost using a minimalist type of approach to the composition and in this
particular photo challenge for framing it was no exception it was a minimalist
type of composition and we have a winner who has now won two photo challenges
congratulations to Nelson Rudy AK on his second win this is a sunflower field
that he shot close to home he's framed in this sunflower in between these three
big bands of our clouds and they may not have even
looked so dark when he took the photo but through his processing he brought
out the darkness in these clouds and just just look at this this sunflower
here on the Left third and it's on the top third as well right where the two
thirds intersect you've got beautiful texture and drama in the sky frames in
the sunflower perfect detail in the sunflower tack sharp focus bottom third
of the entire photo is the the other sunflowers there's no question what you
are supposed to look at in this photo your eye is drawn to that one single
sunflower it is in a way a minimalist type of composition but it is gorgeous
and Nelson wins on this one so congratulations to Nelson and Nelson is
going to win my collection of landscape profiles these profiles you can install
into lightroom classic CC or Photoshop CC and they help you to edit your photos
faster and easier than ever before with just a few clicks Nelson has already won
this so Nelson is going to get a free copy of the landscape photography course
that I am working on now and he will get that when it's done so congratulations
to Nelson great job on winning - and thank you to everybody who submitted
because your photos were fantastic I had a really difficult time narrowing down
the field into just the top entries everyone had a great photo and the point
of this this photo challenge it's not necessarily to win but it's to learn and
to improve your photography so that you can create photos that you love and that
you're going to want to put on your wall at home and so that your visitors into
the your house are going to say wow that's an amazing photo did you take
that yes I did that's the goal is to create art and to love your own art so
now I'm going to announce the next photo challenge and the next photo challenge
is the principle of balance and symmetry now this is a tough one because it's not
easy to find balance and symmetry in landscapes but just take a look at this
one that I shot of Spirit Island in Jasper National Park
Alberta Canada this is balance and symmetry look at the left side there is
what I call anchor left there's a big mountain on the left hand side there's
an anchor right a big mountain on the right-hand side and there's also a
central image so there's balance from left to right you'll notice that that
photo frame is not heavier on one side than on the other side but it's balanced
both ways I'll show you one more example of a balanced photo and it's this one
that I shot at mount robson Provincial Park in British Columbia Canada
and again anchor left is the mountain anchor right is the mountain so there's
that balance left to right one side is not heavier than the other side and we
also have a central theme a central subject in the middle which happens to
be the mountain so this next photo challenge is for balance and symmetry
any composition in landscape or cityscape or a travel photo that
demonstrates the principle of balance and symmetry where both sides have an
equal amount of weight and balance thanks so much for watching this video
please make sure you enter the next photo challenge contest for balance and
symmetry and you do that by joining the Tim's photos Academy Facebook group and
submitting your photos there thanks everybody and I will see you in the next
video good luck on this photo challenge just make sure you submit it's all fun
it's all a learning process see ya