Originally posted by Imageman slavishly following rules of composition makes for boring images
After checking your album, I now understand why you're an expert on what makes boring images.
However, as Liney more politely pointed out...there are reasons why those rules came into being. It is because they work 90% of the time. And if a person understands how to use them effectively, they can improve the communication power of their images. I think there's a lot of interesting things going on in kxjiru's image, but I don't think they're harnessed right. My biggest problems are how centered the main subject is and how much head-room she has. There seems to be no direct reason for either. One of the "slavish" rules of composition is that our eyes are drawn to the brightest spot in a composition. That top highlight is really trying to keep people from looking at the girl. Removing it allows the eye to roam more freely. Or...if that's too much PhotoShop for your street photography, you could use that highlight. Maybe tone it down a bit, crop the image into a slight vertical of the girl, the top highlight, and the row of highlights on the left, creating a triangle...which is again one of those slavish composition rules. Or, you could leave the image "as is" with an intention of making it somewhat unsettling. But it should be pointed out that the reason it would be unsettling is because it's breaking several of the rules of composition. That's what I meant earlier about understanding the rules and how they affect our viewing of images.