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The light and composition have the look of a 17th century Dutch interior, something after the fashion of Vermeer. It's startling in its simplicity and grace, an image of great charm.

thanks for looking and comments

I agree with Peter...  and this is an outstanding, classic portrait... Excellent... Mike

I love it, such beautiful natural light.

I love this one. Beautiful use of light and color (and a lovely subject). I would crop closer in the vertical dimension, perhaps?

Exceptional work, I like the lighting of the scene. Congratulations. Best regards. Vicente

Thank You very much for all opinion :)

Bueatiful exposure and tonality

 

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Very well done. Beautiful lighting and posing of the model. I wonder if it would be advantageous to try a 1:1 format with this composition? Just a thought, of course :-)

This photo works.

The author has succeeded in presenting us (me) a medieval scene of a woman. It recalls the wider situation of "the girl with the pearl earring".

All the visual elements of this photo seem very carefully composed and work very well together. The central pose of the woman is well balanced against the out-of-focus background. The left part of the image very well balances the main focus. The selection of the scene, the dress and the colours and the crop are just right.

Just a nitpick: the edge of the window jamb confuses a little bit with the woman's headgear. But it's not very important.

I am not able to understand whether his photos are manipulated, but to me they don't look as if they were and this is another plus.

Looking at Michal's portfolio, he has undoubtedly an excellent capacity of setting up portraits within particular sceneries. He can select very interesting settings and direct his models very well. This is what ties his photos together and makes his overall photography work very, very well.

What draw my attention and surprise me is the utmost beauty in her cloths details from the very good lighting, as well as the very natural and elegant colors. Really EXCELLENT work and outstanding POW choice.

The subject and her clothing are delightful, and beautifully lit ... but I find I'm distracted by the placement of the large out-of-focus column on the left, and by the visible presence of the anachronistic (relative to her look) large pane of window glass. That modern element (and to a certain extent, the tiles) break the willing suspension of disbelief for me. Some subtle changes of composition - minimizing the modern elements sneaking into the scene - would help with that.

The strengths of this portrait are to me the excellent choice of colour and forms in both the subject's clothing and its complements in the building wall and tile floor colours. The expression of the model (mildly inquisitive) is quite natural I think. The only small weakness for me is the intrusive vertical light wall shape directly above her head, but that's really quite minor. Because it is so well implemented, I would encourage you to use your excellent sense of staging of forms and colour to continue this as a small series of explorations and to attempt other poses as well where the same model is in reflection or other and not necessarily looking at the camera. This one, on the other hand, is a very fine personal and natural portrait in the traditional manner and reveals something about your subject. Thanks.

I like the richness of tones and the light. I also like the direct, but somewhat inquisitive, expression on the model's face. Other than that, there isn't anything here that holds my attention, nothing here that would make me want to return for another look.

She and the lighting on her along with her clothing are fantastic. I find the large empty wall space at left a bit overpowering & would crop a little off the bottom. Congrats on POW

A stunning inspiration from the Flemish painting !

As mentioned already by others, this photo of Michal Magdziak is very well shot and especially the light on her face and clothes is beautifully made.
The only question I would put, is the rendering of the blurred pillar in the foreground to the left. The "pillars" are clearly less medieval than the lady and less esthetic to the eye. Nevertheless I would have preferred the foreground pillar to be less blurred or less present in the frame.

Very pictorialist (wich is a plus for me). Almost perfect. You probably shot more then one right? I would love to see the others. Did you tried with a less DOF? Other head positions (like she was looking at the window, or a letter?). Gratz. Always rfreshing to see great work like this.

The photographer has used the soft light from the window and manipulated the shade and tonality to extract the very best effect from the colours. Combined with great composition we have a superb image.

It's the distribution of light that I find so striking and well done in this portrait. I'm curious if a reflector might have been used to further soften the light that would be coming through a large "softbox" window. Nevertheless, the illumination is very well done and it so perfectly sets off the face and clothing. Some have mentioned the OOF pillar on the left; I've mentally tried to replace it with something else, or give it more clarity or more light, but my mind's eye finds any alternative less attractive than what Michal has provided. Fortunately, I don't have to guess what it is, and it's straight relative to the next column over and the window by that column, so those have not become issues as they sometimes do in similar photos. I was initially put off by the OOF "extra lines" on the background wall above the woman's head, and my mind's eye still finds a smoother image without them, but I also think it's a very minor detail that doesn't detract much from the overall composition; some might even suggest that it keeps the photo from being too sterile. Finally, I had the same thought as Matt Laur about the intrusion of modern elements into a medieval scene created by the clothing worn by the woman, but isn't that an assumption (a logical assumption on our part, but an assumption nevertheless) that Michal had intended to clothe this woman to create a scene of a bygone era? I could imagine a woman (or women) choosing to dress and live like this on an everyday basis in today's world (oh, for the simple times), and perhaps it's not necessarily a re-creation of another era. I don't know for sure, and I'm inclined to suspend my opinion about the modern glass window until I have a better understanding of the photographer's intent. A few questions, some minor quibbles on the part of the viewers (maybe some major concerns are still to come), a photo that is not an everyday photo -- great selection for a POW.

I agree that the lighting on the model face is very well balanced, the model pose is also well connecting, more over the details obtained are of very fine nature and so the originality of colors.
The contents all around like the columns on the left, the not sufficient size of the window and the large empty space in the foreground, these contents are not of great contribution to the over composition of this image.
I thank the photographer for sharing this image with us and congratulate him for having his image been selected to be the POW, I also thanks the Elvis for their nice selection.

What's with all the over use of vignetting lately? As far as I'm concerned, if you need to apply that much vignette to draw attention to the subject there's a problem. Otherwise, if it is a stylistic thing, then it is a trend then after a while it will become tiresome. This photo is just fine without it. The receding perspective, strong colours, strong subject matter draws enough focus.

Cette photo est magnifique et personnellemnt je suis incapable d'en faire une aussi belle. Aussi ma remarque est à considérer avec modestie. Il aurait été préférable de faire poser le modèle dans un décor plus ancien en rapport avec les habits.

wonderful light n indeed , and very harmonious , position .
im wondering if more contrasting colors with the floor ( like the yellows and blues in Vermeer paintings ) may make more attention and luminance to the subject ..
great genre portarit anyway .
cheers
samer