My mum

I tried not to use the conventional point of view in portrait and

helped with the vaist level finder of my Rollei, I used this very low

point of view. Also, I tried the framing not to be conventional, and

the picture to look natural, did I succeed? Your turn.

I do like the upwards angle that you shot at, and the way her eyes are looking right into the camera. It's ruined for me, though, because she's missing part of her head.

I appreciate the effort and I entirely understand the motivation to do something different. But I think there is room for improvement.

 

Let's first consider this pic as if it was meant for your mam:

If this were my mam and I would show her this pic, she would say

1/ "You cut off my head, but showed my knees"

2/ "I'm not smiling"

3/ "Too bad it's not in color"

So, unless your mam is different from mine (and I consider my mam 'average') I don't think this pic will make her very excited.

 

Now let's try to consider this from the viewpoint of someone who knows your mam:

She looks pretty relaxed, maybe a little bit benevolently wondering what you are doing, so I think you captured her as she is and people who know her will like the picture. But they also might like the whole head and the color.

 

Finally let's look at it from the viewpoint of an average photonetter, who doesn't know your mam.

We see an elderly woman sitting on a sofa, some ill-defined semi-sharp dark background and that's it. We don't know anything about the person and the picture also doesn't tell us much, no hint from the environmental context or in the facial expression. Frankly I'm afraid it doesn't generate much interest for me.

It would be nice if I could tell you, what would be interesting, but as you know her and I don't, you are probably in a better position to decide this.

 

I admit however that I consider it pretty hard to generate some general interest with this subject matter.

Although taking family pictures is more a sideline of my interests, its interesting to see 3 of 4 submissions to "Stieglitz" with this subject matter, I'm really looking forward to the discussion.

 

Bernhard

This is certainly unconventional - you chopped her in three places! Ok, now seriously, the knees are of course fine, but I am not sure about her left arm (perhaps you could have asked her to move it closer?) and the top of her head. Yes, I would have liked to see all of her head. Apart from that I like it. She looks authentic and calm, the lighting is very nice. The upward angle you chose, actually makes me feel like a child. That's a nice touch photographing your mother!

 

Why did you choose Delta 3200? It doesn't look that dark. Perhaps the photo could be printed darker and more contrasty. Now, it seems a bit flat. But that's probably me, I like dark and gloomy prints.

 

Did Stieglitz himself do much family photography? We all seem to!

Damn, beat me to it, Bernhard! But I don't think colour vs b&w comes into the equation. Most people I know, really like b&w since no one shoots it, let alone develop and print themselves. Do you, Oscar? Do your own darkroom work, I mean.

Oh, I like it in B&W, but I know what my parents and relatives say when I email B&W pics of my family backhome to Germany :)

There is a reason why consumer films are super-saturated.

I just tried to see the pic from different perspectives. My personal wish list for this pic would be:

1/ B&W but less grain, this is a lot of grain for a MF neg, XP-2 in 35mm looks better.

2/ A little bit more 'environment' so that I get to know a little bit more about Oscar's mum.

3/ Definitely the whole head, probably also arms and feet visible.

I'm not sure knees belong in general portraiture...these knees are so prominent that I find myself drawn to look at them. Now if this were a fashion shot with a young girl, that might be ok. But generally, when shooting a mature person, I go for the face. See my submission of "the lady in a moment of rest" in this circle, or many or my other "New Yorker" portraits.

 

Anyway, the knees seem more prominent than the face, because they are sticking out of the picture plane. This was probably not the intention of the photographer.

 

Wow, I'm glad I read the other posts first, I usually don't but everyone seems in agreement on the major points. The head or lack there of was the first thing I saw then the knees, too prominent. I do like the low perspective and the choose of b/w or color can go either way which has already been talked about enough.

Hmmm, an interesting attempt at an unual portrait, but methinks cutting off anybody's head in a portrait/family shot is unforgivable.

I would have placed both her hands on her knees.

Is that a door on the left? It's distracting.

Hi, thank you for all your comments but I am very surprised about how "classical" you are. It is not a 'family snapshot', it is a photography for me and it is very common to "cut" the head in portraits. I am not the first or the last that would do it. But, anyway, it is your opinion and I must live with it ;-)

I like the unconventional treatment, but I wish the face were more prominent, esp in an older person. The grainy-ness of the picture adds a nice touch.

 

Nice catch of the expression in her eyes. I don't usually mind cropping the top of someone's head. but I don't think it works compositionally here. Also, it seems to me that her knees are the most dominant part of the picture, when you normally want that to be her face. Just one amateur's opinions...

I fail to see what the unconventional viewpoint and cropping adds except unconventionality.

I like her expression. As others have said, perhaps some different croppings would work. This is one of those images that can be cropped a number of different ways and still "work".