Artistic Licence or Taking a Liberty

These two shots are of a road in Durham City called North Bailey, part of the historic center and close to the Castle and Cathedral.

This is as it was seen



This is the same image as I think it looks better.



Is it artistic licence or taking a liberty or not worth doing?

It's your image - if you prefer it, then do it.

There's a big 'However' to my comment - in my opinion it's definitely not the right thing to do if you're presenting the result as a record shot.

Phil

Artistic licence for me.
I'm not sure why, but it does look better flipped.

I'd have to ask does it matter for this shot? Not if we don't know the area, but if we do then we'll know it's wrong.

The area is indelibly imprinted in my mind as we recently stumbled into it in a car. Pay a toll, no problem, but a notice saying pay at the toll shop isn't helpful if there's no shop any more! After a while the internet found us a phone number for the council and we successfully phoned to pay our £2. First time visit to Durham and we found it a very difficult city to negotiate. We will try again, doing more research next time!

Back to the shot. I'd leave well alone, preferring a record image to reflect the actual situation.

How would you feel if you thought you'd bought a house on the sunny side of the street

I remember in the 70's that there was a lot of advice floating around not to holiday in the North of Tenerife, because it was usually clouded, so travel companies started turning the brochure maps upside down so people thought they were booking a holiday in the South

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I prefer the flipped too, and as long as you like it's fine in my book.

I agree it does artistically. Given we read from left to right, the picture flows better because the road leads from left to right (in the flipped image.)
There's a good page of example composition techniques here and the left to right rule is mentioned.

Obviously as a record it's wrong though so how to take this without having to reverse the image? What about walking up the road, turning round and take it looking back perhaps?

It may also be psychological in that the flipped version suggests thst the sun is in the east and that it is early morning, so there may be the expectation of a sunny day to come.

It would depend on what you claimed for the image; e.g. if it was entitled "North Bailey, Durham", the second would be more than both 'taking a liberty' and 'not worth doing' - it would be just plain wrong. If it was entitled something like "Deserted Street", the composition of the second image is more appealing - both 'artistic licence' and 'worth doing'.

Philip

It would be very confusing if everybody started to do this especially with well know landmarks such as Buckingham Palace, Houses of Parliament etc. It would quickly give photography a bad name.

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It sounds incredible, but a photograph of Scarborough South Bay was reversed in a TV ad by Welcome to Yorkshire. It was shown regularly in the ad breaks during Heartbeat several years ago as they were then the programme sponsors. They never explained why they felt the need to do this or perhaps in was plain ignorance!

I think it's a matter of reading the image from left to right, you expect the start to be at the left and the end (of the road) at the right.

I would do it too, if it made my image stronger ..... but I'd consider the context of where it would be viewed and how it was being presented. If its just an amateur capture for sharing in places like this, where we're talking about the camera and lens used, or techniques, then its fine I think. If it was being used in any sort of associated way with the actual place (eg being published or used online in material that was discussing the actual location) then I feel that accuracy would be important.

There is a theory that people will prefer an image of themselves if it has been revered left to right. The logic is that then they look at the image as though in a mirror, which is how we usually see ourselves.

I see what you mean and I think it is because in The West we read from left to right and expect our images to do likewise.
Someone from Japan or China might feel the opposite ?

However, I agree with most of the comments that I prefer to generally leave things as they are, as a true record.
Peter