Wellington bookstore

[Godune]

A picture of my favourite bookstore 'Phoenix' in my favourite city in NZ. I was trying to capture that book-shop feeling of somewhere warm to get lost in for hours. Anyhoo i'd love some critical input if anyone has the time.

[willard3]

Bienvenidos to the Zo.

If you want it to feel warm, warm the colors up some. The light is too cool now. If the composition were less centered there would be more visual interest.

[chicagojohn]

I like this concept. Since you posted it in the critique forum, here are a few thoughts I would have, my less than 2 cents worth You get what you pay for, as they say LOL

I don't know if you have software for what is called "high dynamic range" or HDR photography, but without flash, that could be used to advantage here. What that does is to allow you to take several images of the same subject at different exposures and then create a composite from overlaying them to get more balanced exposure. Photomatix is one such program and Photoshop CS5 has that capability also.

But in a single exposure, you could consider adding more reflected light on what you are calling the subject; viz., the books. As it stands, the eye is immediately drawn to the brightest portion of the image; the two globes then the strip of lights running horizontally, and finally the desk lamp shade. Only then does it discover the books that serve as a mere backdrop to those lights.

So illumination could be applied by various means to the sides. OR, you could perhaps also use the dodge tool in photoshop to increase the luminance along the bookshelves and, perhaps, the burn tool to reduce the intensity of the lightest areas in the present image.

Then, in addition, without having checked I would think this was taken with a fairly wide-angle lens and, if I am correct, this could be why the vertical lines are leaning inward. Again, in photoshop, you could use the perspective crop feature to achieve straighter verticals on the bookshelves, IF that is your intention.

So, that having been said, the main point I would like to make is that YOU are the creator of everything you do, and it must be first and foremost what pleases you with respect to the intention with which you created it in the first instance. Folks like me cannot get inside your head and fully understand what you were attempting to do. It may well be that if all of the suggestions I'm making were fully and perfectly implemented, you would look at the comparison and prefer what you posted to what I am suggesting. And that would be perfectly fine.

So, take these suggestions for what they are. Others will have other views, I'm sure.

[Godune]

Thanks for the comments guys, definitely food for thought Admittedly any talk on my part about composition would be 'after the fact' as it was not fully in my mind as i took the shot. I'd taken a few in the place but i wanted to include the kind man who allowed me to photograph the store, doing his thing, and thought the bookshelves would make a good framing device for him (and his workspace which i also wanted to include).
However this is where my explanation collapses in on itself somewhat, as i guess that would make him the focal point even though he is small relative to the shot and slightly blurred, and having said that i also quite liked having the bookshelves in focus...though i cant really say why.
But your suggestions have given me a few notions as to how i can perhaps improve on it somewhat. I don't have photoshop chicaojohn but i do have it's quirky little brother GIMP, so i can try to implement some of your ideas. Whatever i do the two globes need to be changed as they don't play party to my intentions at all, then i'll go from there. Thanks again.