I’m really struggle with composition. I’m trying to learn the most (and the best) I can.
I agree with you about the artistic differences between the 3 images. I think this is good someway. I mean, I don’t have a deadline or a concept to follow, so i can experiment some stuff and find what better fill the gaps I find on my way.
That being said, I now have more stuff to do to improve this scene. Maybe I should use a concept next time… I don’t know. The things I’ve learn with this exercise until now were possible because I started without a concept, just some references (none for composition purposes, my bad!)
By the way, I also agree with the importance of composition. I’ll keep studying and maybe someday this turns a little bit easy to me.
Thank you once again! Helped me a lot!
This practice turned on a good time to me. Lots of learning and fun.
But, the bills are calling and I had a busy day today, so I couldn’t work on that. But, as soon as I can I’ll try to put these tips to work on this scene.
I’ll work these light better and change some settings in the post-processing. I do need to change the color granding, for sure…
I’ll bring updates when I have little time to work on that.
Cool !
Indeed I find quite hard to mix actual work and personal projects… Anyway having a little step-back is always helpful to go back with a fresh mind.
Good luck with work and I hope to see cool new stuff from you sooner or later !
Yeah, sometimes is pretty hard to find a bit of time to work in personal stuff. But, the good news is that I had a couple hours today and the outcome is there…
My goal was something like a night “not that good” for the girl with the kid and a very unconcerned dad (that lives across the street) late to take the little boy with him.
That being said, I actually didn’t look for a heavy mood. It’s much more about calm and loneliness.
I personally think that each of these “compositions” – including the most recent one – are equally valid. At this point, maybe you should consider: story.
“What story do you want this composition to support?” Do you imagine that there is anything happening in the scene, and if so, who in the scene is to be “the participant(s)?”
Now, on that point I would caution you one very-specific thing – speaking to the most-recent image. Upon close examination, I detect the presence of two individuals. But neither of them is lit in such a way that they are separated from their surroundings. The leftmost character is more-so because “the eye is always drawn to the brightest and most-contrasty thing,” but the second character definitely is not.
So, creator: “What’s the story here?” It’s your call. Are these two people just passing each other by, on their way to-or-from buying cigarettes and milk? Or is there tension? Is one of them about to murder the other? It’s your call. But this is a very definite component in deciding what is the “right” way to set up a scene. (Whether in CG or in “real” films.) You are the cinematographer.
Hey, it’s getting much better !!!
Indeed it’s starting to feel finished and much more organised…
To me there is still a bit of competition with the building in the background, streetlights, the moon and the main characters.
I couldn’t prevent myself from trying something, as said, sometime a picture is worth a 100 words :
It’s by no means perfect and some decisions are quite debatable, but the main idea is to get rid of unnecessary elements, let’s focus on the subject , it’s already enough…
Basically by putting less stuff the image starts to feel stronger isn’t it ?
This is also because we start to establish a stronger hierarchy in the image, what is important is more visible, and everything else is much darker.
I also darkened a lot everything around the image, so it’s basically saying that there is nothing interesting to look at outside of the frame…
Hope that helps and I hope it’s ok for you that I do this paint over !
Feel free to tell me if I’m getting a bit too intrusive !
Yeah, certanly next time I’ll start the project with some story in the background. This time a started just trying to build an image without any storytelling. The story is being build with the image itself, that way I do the adjustments once I realize the problems I need to solve in the image. Probably not the most efficient way to have a good image in a little time, but very effective as exercise.
Anyway, about the lighting of the characters I subtle changed it. I guess is better now. Thanks for the tip!
Thank you for the feedback and also by the image! No worries about it.
By the way, the paint over came very handy to understand how you’ve structured the hierarchy of the elements.
I redo some lighting and changed some settings in the post-processing.
That’s what I have until now. Subtle changes, but I guess is getting better.
Now the main elements are much easier to find in the picture and that make the whole much pleasing to look at !
It’s probably possible to tighten things a bit more and keep improving but this would probably quickly bring diminishing returns, at least as an exercise…
I think it’s up to you if you want to keep working on it then maybe take a little step-back and use your gut feeling to emphasis the subject even more…
Or maybe it’s time to start a new piece and keep practicing cinematic shots
Well done anyway ! looks like you are in a very good mindset to make great progress !
In every scene, there is “story.” Yes, this latest rendering is a significant improvement because now the distant man is clearly visible in dramatic light, showing his hat, his shoulders, and (in particular) his hand. Although at the moment it’s not quite clear where the light is coming from.
You have now created a visually tense scene which suggests an imminent confrontation of some kind between the two characters. A good time for the guy in front to maybe turn and cross the street …
Thank you very, very much for sharing your knowledge with me. It was very helpful.
I guess I’ll go forward with another exercise and, probably, in some time, I can get back here and take a look in this project again.
I’ll try another aproach this time, starting by the story I want to tell.
This probably will help me to focus more in the subject and the definition of the hierarchy of the composition.
Starting something new looks like the right move indeed !
Thinking about the story and or subject first is surely going to help a lot to get everything in the right direction from the start.
Keep in mind that when talking about story in an image / picture it’s not always literally a story but rather story elements that are connected.
First an image needs a well established subject, then we say that a picture is worth a thousands words, and this is were you need to pay attention to details and creative decisions, so the image convey as much information as possible without sending mixed signals.
So we could say that it’s more about backstory rather than an actual story going on, but of course that depends on a few things :
In a illustration all story elements are part of the image since there is only one image this is where the story is probably going to be more explicit.
In a movie, the shot is part of a series and it doesn’t have to tell everything but just setting the main tone and make the story move forward a bit.
In a movie it’s more about saying if this is a happy moment/place, or the opposite, when does the story takes place, is this our reality or pure fantasy, should we feel lonely , joyful , scared …
Probably not the best video ever, but it’s filled with great shots and these examples are interesting to study, how each one of them manage to help the story moving forward, what information they bring to the viewer…
