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Got told my photos were too 'busy' by a gallery owner in Portland
A gallery owner in Portland looked at my landscape shots and said I was trying to fit too many elements in each frame. She told me to pick one focal point and crop everything else out. I cut my usual 24mm wide shots down to 50mm equivalents and suddenly my compositions actually held together. Has anyone else found that harsh feedback on a specific technical detail changed their whole approach to something?
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grantschmidt7d ago
That line about picking one focal point and cropping everything else out hit me hard too. I used to think cramming more in meant you got more of a scene, but this kind of feedback proved the opposite works way better for me. Now I try to strip every shot down to just one thing that caught my eye first, and yeah, my compositions snap into focus a lot cleaner.
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king.derek7d ago
Yeah my first photo workshop the instructor literally took a black sharpie and drew a box around one single thing in my shot and said "this is your photo now." Felt brutal at the time but it totally flipped a switch for me. Now I do that in my head before I even lift the camera, just ask myself what caught my eye first and build the whole frame around that one spot.
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