maestro said:
Thanks for your specific suggestions to every picture, @Hard2Focus . Very helpful!
Since you mentioned "photos being too close": How would you define whether a pic is too close or not? for example the guitar picture, why does is matter wheter the left arm is fully on it or not? Or the reading picture, the focus is on the profile of my face and the book. widening the perspective does not seem to bring any benefits here, or does it?
Thanks
I'll try and explain this as best as I can. FWIW I've been interested in photography since I was about 17 years old, so a lot of my knowledge around composing photos isn't very formalized in my mind - it's more of a second nature if anything.
Imagine you're sitting opposite of a stranger reading a book, looking at them. If you were sitting as close as you've placed your camera, it would feel too close for comfort.
It's normal to leave a bit of space in the same direction that the subject is looking, so that we get a sense of where they are looking. The black bars and the blur at the top and bottom of your photo adds to the whole "closed in" feeling, together with the fact that parts of the book is cropped out.
Also, it's easy to tell you're not looking at the book itself, making the photo feel even more staged.
Some good examples of quality "guy reading" photos.
Note how much more space there is around each of the subjects, compared to yours. And even with added space, the focus is still on the guy.
Obviously these photos were shot with a decent DSLR, professionally edited + the guys also look good and have decent outfits on them.
Hope I'm making sense here