Advice on composition and editing of the following picture [closed]

Question

I'm new to photography (as in I just borrowed my first DSLR 2 days ago), I'm in the "read something new and go apply it in the field" phase.

Yesterday walking home from work, I saw an interesting scene where two trucks were parked behind each other all beat up and rusty. The rear truck interestingly had good tires with the brand "good year". I thought, it'll be a neat idea to take the photo and edit it later at home to showcase a positive message about how it's ok to have a beat up body as long as the foundation or the peers are in good shape.

As suggested by books I used the rule of thirds, so I tried to line up the word "good year" with the right axis, and the hitch from the car with the left axis. I tried to divide the view so half the ground wall are shown.

the original pic, taken with:

• Canon EOS Digital Rebel (300D)
• f/16.0 1/51s ISO-200 85mm (the lens is 17-85)

Processed Picture:

One of the books/articles I read, suggested to put contracts to the maximum as well as saturation for maximum dramatic effect, so i decided to try it on this picture.

I used iPhoto, RawTherapee and Gimp for this image.

Asked by dassouki

Answer

The book that you read, that told you to put contrast and saturation to the maximum for dramatic effect should be thrown out and or burned.

For the composition, if you wanted us to know that the car in front was an important part of the image, I would have taken a few steps back to your right when taking the shot, to get more of an angle of both cars.

It sounds like the important pieces of the image are the car bodies, and the tires. If that is the case I would try a larger aperture(smaller number on the camera) to put the background out of focus, and remove it as a distraction.

Props for putting an image up online for critique so early in your photography career! That takes bravery!

Answered by dpollitt

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