About a month ago, I found a photographer that I really admire on photo.net. His name is Michael Seewald. After reviewing his work on the website, I signed up for his announcements. As chance would have it, he called about his workshop that weekend. The workshop was on composition and moving the viewer’s eye throughout the image. After hearing Vincent Versace discuss tips for moving the viewer’s eye using Photoshop, I have been wondering about next step in my own work. Sometimes fate does give you a little nudge in the right direction.

Fortunately, I could make it to San Diego for the workshop. The workshop was small and that our allowed us to do extensive portfolio reviews of each other’s work. I learned so much that I will have to do multiple entries to discuss all of it. It was a great experience and I would heartily recommend it to anyone looking to improve their work.

First, how can you tell what is a compelling image? Vincent Versace noted that people had said they could not stop looking at his images even though they were of “familiar” objects. That is an excellent goal for my own work. Michael Seewald has mastered making compelling images. Michael had us look at each other’s images and count how many seconds we looked before we feel we finished. The longer the count, the more compelling the image.

So, why are some images more compelling than others? Well, the viewer must given a lot to look BUT in an orderly manner. It is very important to learn exactly how you are viewing an image.

• – What did you look at first?
• What next? What after that?
• Did you circle the image more than once looking for more details?
• Is there something that confuses you? If so, you tend to look away and not look again.
• Are there tension points on the edges of the frame causing your eye to leave?
• Is there somewhere the eye can linger before continuing?
• Does the image follow the rule of thirds? If not, does it work anyway?

Have someone else discuss what they see in your image. It was very enlightening to me. We all did a lot of practice on each other’s images. For me, I found it difficult to express where I looked but practice worked. Turn the image away from you and then looking at it fresh helps. Try looking in a mirror or upside-down.