Contentment

I bow before you. Beautiful!

...so soft- excellent work!!!

Great Art, BRAVO!!! Cordially Michel

very nice potrait............perfect lighting

 

An exceptional portrait (7/7), amazing Lighting, softness, color, and angle, well done

 

+ + +

Absolutly wonderful!

Simply Stunning!

Great work!

-Allenda

ext !

I wish I'd have produced this shot, it's excellent, painterly, beautiful light.

Roberto fantastic use of light, wonderful colors and texture. Warm regards.

Beautiful Rembrandt type photo and lighting. I love it! Really nothing negative to say about it since I think you achieved the look you were going for.

Please note the following:

• This image has been selected for discussion. It is not necessarily the "best" picture the Elves have seen this week, nor is it a contest.
• Discussion of photo.net policy, including the choice of Photograph of the Week should not take place here, but in the Help & Questions Forum.
• The About Photograph of the Week page tells you more about this feature of photo.net.
• Before writing a contribution to this thread, please consider our reason for having this forum: to help people learn about photography. Visitors have browsed the gallery, found a few striking images and want to know things like why is it a good picture, why does it work? Or, indeed, why doesn't it work, or how could it be improved? Try to answer such questions with your contribution.

Another over-processed photograph with an inane title...a title that really seems to bear no relationship to the photo, itself. Looking at the girl's expression, it could just as well be titled Sadness and be just as meaningless. The soft focus or blur or whatever you wish to call it is way overdone. Very little eye detail. Thumbs down from me on this one.

I don't like this picture. It desperately wants to be a painting but it isn't. Even with the Caravaggio-esque lighting and pose, the heavier-than-needs-to-be post processing for global de-saturation and soft focus come forward in the frame, not the sitter.

I appreciate the classical approach and the model is a comely young lady. While I like soft focus effects, this is approaching global mush focus. I'm OK with the dead eyes and head merging to the background as a common painting device , if only a more judicious control of focus and color saturation were used the sitter would have a life and richness that is commonly seen in Old Master work. What we have here is lack of restraint and finesse.

It's fine to take picture ques from a great painter. If one studies the paintings carefully you'll find the hardness and softness of edges manipulate focus to control eye travel. Even in a low key scene like this, there is usually a stroke or two of strong tone, contrast or color that makes the whole scene come alive. That's the Master's stroke. That's what is missing.

 

Louis Meluso's explanation of why this photo does not work was certainly worth the visit to Photo.net today.

Too bad I can't same the same for the Elves' selection.

Jim Adams describes all that is faux here, and I marvel over the endless praise in the comments above, the odd collective wackiness going down. Who are all those people using words such as Great, Fantastic, Magnificent, Gorgeous, Wonderful, on an average if not mediocre image, and what can they possibly be seeing? Some even referenced the image to Rembrandt…

I think I will start by repeating what I think I have said both of the last two POW's, and that is I like that people experiment with different things.

As I looked over Roberto's few images posted here, it struck me that we are looking at what appears to be mostly experimental work. Since we don't have any words (I didn't try to read comments) otherwise, I wonder if when Robert wasn't just learning and seeking feedback on new techniques and their success or not. There are very few images shot or processed in similar ways and his last post was specifically an attempt to emulate a popular photographer's style. I like this sort of thing, beginner or not, it is how we grow and learn.

So we have this series of images, including the POW, where Robert tried some classic lighting, a classic set and the use of soft focus--and maybe some more current use of wind. My sense about the work is that the lighting was handled pretty well. I like the balance in the shadows of the face and the fade off feels very natural and not harsh like it can often be. I do think the soft focus is a bit too much--I am not a big fan of the look, but can appreciate it when it is done well. That said, I do think that the image before this one, the same girl looking off to our left, feels a bit more integrated as to the soft focus and the scene.

It would be nice to be able to see where his work has gone, but I like the attempt here and think the light was handled pretty well. Just a bit too much soft focus.

There's light but no life. It's as if Roberto was able to drain it all away from her. I get a very sad feeling from this image.

Jim captured my initial impression very well -- I thought it would have been better for Roberto to leave a title off this one, as the current title does not reflect in any way what I'm able to see in the photograph. Louis explained the shortcomings better than I ever could, and I agree that the photo falls short of what it appears to have set out to do. However, in that vein, I'm in complete agreement with John A. in assuming Roberto was trying new things, something that I admire and something that I need to do myself. A look at the diversity in Roberto's photographs shows the great range of subjects and techniques he is trying. Finally, Carlos identified the difference in the comments received when the photo was initially posted versus those that it is (so far) receiving as a POW, and this is not an uncommon phenomenon. I'd like to know from Roberto if this was an experiment, if he was trying to emulate some other artistic expressions, and why he chose this particular title. However, it seems he last participated in PN some 5 years ago, and that probably lessens the chance of getting some responses from him; I hope I'm wrong.

It's more than obvious to myself that the photographer here is driven by a painter's motive rather than a photographic one. My humble opinion is that he didn't try to compose/create a picture. He tried to recreate a painting that most probably has seen somewhere, using his camera and his skills during and after the shot.
In fact I think he was experimenting back in 2005, when the shot is taken. Nothing bad with that. Photo's main disadvantage for me is young girl's look. It's blank and indifferent. There's very little communication between the photographer and the child. Frankly, where's the Contentment that the photographer was after?...Does it show in her eyes? in her face expression? I am afraid that there's no "life" in it, even the coloring and the softness used are contributing to that non-contentmet feeling.
As I said, I think he was experimenting to recreate something he had in mind rather than composing a picture from scratch. What he had in mind to achieve, I can only guess... if he managed to succeed with it, only he knows. To my eyes he didn't...take care everyone!

Sure it's painterly, and I would say successfully so.
You don't have to like it, after all.

This sort of thing was once the very essence of a lot of pictorialism, and there's no harm in it, nor do I see any reason to pile onto it either.

 

A little catchlight in her eyes would have brightened them up a lot and given them some life.

That says it all for me.

I would go back to the original file and start all over.

--Lannie

I don't necessarily disagree with the comments so far, but maybe we should keep in mind that this image was made in 2005 when Photoshop usage was still relatively less sophisticated, and that photographers from other than North America or Europe such as Roberto might have had arts and cultural influences from his native Paraguay.