Kitchenette; Gary, Indiana

I think this is actually a well executed composition, my only thought would be to find a clearly defined line for the bottom of the frame. I guess I just feel solid edges on the top, right, and left, but not as much on the bottom. If you really want to change up the composition maybe shoot from the level of the counter top instead of the cabinet. It's all really your choice, the photograph tells a different story each way you present it. This does seem like a quintessential subject for lith treatment though!

What a cool subject. It feels a bit cramped for me, I'd have stepped back a bit and given more space around it, especially at the bottom and top.

Always wanted to go up to Gary to shoot. Its a 2 hour drive from my home in Fort Wayne (A much nicer place to live, lol), but even though Ft. Wayne is 3 times the size of Gary, the amount of crime and violence there is said to be incredible.

Re: Kitchenette; Gary, Indiana

Great Shot, and interseting subject. I would agree with Chris to step back. At the moment it's to tightly cropped at the bottom in my opinion. You have great texture and tone in the flaking paint on the inside of some of the cabinets around the outside of the photo particularly on the right hand side. My urge is to want to step closer and explore them but that option is prohibited by not enough space at the bottom, there is nowhere to stand. I don't no whether you can go back there, if you can then perhaps you could shoot it again with the doors on the left and right slighlty closed in a bit so that they line up with the the original carcas frame. At the moment you have either two or three edges on either side and the top of the whole composition that distracts from the real subject. Which I would have thought to be the old delapitated carcas and the texture, tone and contrast of its component parts, perhaps more texture, contrast in the floor and mid level cupboards may also help. Ultimately, it's up to you, but there are a number of options IMO to improve a good image to start with, it depends mainly on what you want to get from it.

Cropping round objects is something to watch for - I usually find cropping none, or at least half, of a round object works best. For some reason the brain wants to complete the circle, and a heavy crop forestalls this tendency. The bottom of the frame has a couple of roundish elements which are slightly cropped. I think you may need to crop more, or less, of them, or maybe just burn them down. I don't have a problem with the bottom edge otherwise.

Dan I find that your photo is heavily weighted to the right hand side making almost the LHS of your picture redundant, for this reason I would suggest that you darken down the backwall on the LHS.