Watercoloured Painting of 4 Seasons

[joshkoo]

Is this picture eye pleasing or give any impact? If not, how can I improve?

Here's a set of chinese paintings I bought from China hung in my room. I took a couple of shots and angles, was about to throw away this shot when I gave a 2nd chance as I thought maybe it could make an impact. The original photo was ugly - the shadows seemed little awkward, and my wall color was a ugly orange.

B/W mask added but colors retain for the paintings. Added a couple of layers to create the border which mimics the painting frame and shadows. I scanned, give a little touch up and inserted my chinese name seal.

 

[velasco]

To me paintings will look more appealing if you take it straight from afront.

then you can showcase the intricacy of the pieces. a side angled composition tend to make it look odd with all the alignment of the paintings being neatly spaced out.

 

[joshkoo]

To me paintings will look more appealing if you take it straight from afront.

then you can showcase the intricacy of the pieces. a side angled composition tend to make it look odd with all the alignment of the paintings being neatly spaced out.

Thank you velasco for your comments. Here's a front shot that I've taken. somehow something still doesn't look correct

 

[riotvan]

Thank you velasco for your comments. Here's a front shot that I've taken. somehow something still doesn't look correct

cus it's not straight?

 

[zac08]

There is a vertical and horizontal distortion...

Shoot direct front on...

 

[tainted]

did you use a body flash or something? the shadows cast on the paintings look very harsh... bounce flash instead....

 

[joshkoo]

Thanks, I wondering if it was not straight because of the distortion of the wide angle lens 17-35 or that the frames was not hung straight. I'll trying shooting again straight on.

tainted: I didn't use flash but I pointed the table lamp onto it (causing the vertical shadows. the ceiling light is giving the bottom left shadows). The lamp seems to work well when I want to take small objects on the table without flash with a usual digital camera. Somehow with this f/3.5-4.5 lens as I still use iso800 to give enough light without handshake. If I don't use the lamp, I'll get something like this.



Bouncing the flash should be a good idea too, although I never thought of it