tuas mãos...

I like it!

Best regards Maria!

PDE

fantastic composition, compliments

haunting image.  Cleverly conceived and executed.  Regards - michel

Well done Maria. Looks like a scene from horror movie. Thanks for sharing.

lovely idea!

I like the concept. Powerful and elegant.

Una imagen muy atractiva e inquietante. Me gusta la idea y la luz que has captado. Enhorabuena.

beautifully designed and created

great palette and tonal choices

well done

Maria muy buen trabajo en una composicion genial!

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.

Yes! Visually arresting, in the sense that my brain stopped doing everything else while I took this one in. It's no complaint to say that it plays a bit like, "Hey, let's try this..." with some cooperative hand models. Meaning, I'm not catching any attempt (or need) to communicate anything in particular, or reveal some layer that's missing from my understanding of something. It's just fun use of cloudy glass and great tones. The square format serves the playful abstraction well. Could this opportunity and technique have been use more theatrically, to other ends? Sure. But I have no problem with the fact that it wasn't. I was rewarded with a pleasant little moment of rare "haven't see that before," which is very refreshing.

I really don't have any "intellectual" appreciation of the image along the lines spelled out by Matt, but I find it aesthetically very interesting. Not pleasing, necessarily, even a little disturbing; but still it causes a strong reaction in me.
FWIW, there have been some "groping hands" somewhat like this in some horror films, but that's not where my reaction comes from.
The elves seem to have chosen well. I'll be interested to see what others think of it.

I've seen pictures on this subject matter. Faces, bodies or limbs against the plain sheet illuminated so that contours would be visible like in this image. From the aesthetic point of view, I like it. It's nice to play like that. This picture also reminds me of a subject matter where a female body is wrapped in a wet sheets or a wet drapery. I can't think right now of a female photographer who did that in the past.

This definitely catches your eye! I think it's well done; I was worried I would open up the thumbnail to find imperfections in the background or poor DOF, but everything works. It's very dark in content and leaves your imagination open to wherever it takes you. I have seen this done before, but this one works!

This one grabbed my interest & pulled me in for a bit. It's interesting & keeps the viewer's attention. It's quite good in originality. I like the interplay between the shadows & highlights within the area of the hands

This is a novelty photograph, a legitimate art form. The fingers pressed against the translucent glass create a surreal image. It has indeed been done before. Nevertheless, this is not unoriginal. Whatever else, it is interesting when first encountered.

Can the image keep one's interest? Does the novelty wear off?

I can only speak for myself: the novelty wears off quickly.

I can tell you why. The hands are not particularly memorable. They look weird, but dull once I get used to them. Then the overall gloppiness of the image starts to get on my nerves, fair or foul as that might be.

This is not a bad image. In fact, as novelty images go, this is a pretty good image. The weirdness is understated and there is an admirably stark simplicity to the overall structure.
But that said, i do not think that there is anything left after the initial surprise goes away.

Hands moving from nowhere! great surreal atmosphere, perfectlty excecuted!

Visually intriguing and technically nice. The hands look like sea creatures, and the fact that there's a third hand in the mix adds to the interest for me. Does it merit repeated viewings? For some, perhaps. It's interesting for a minute or two, and will generate some comments and thought. I'd return to it from time to time, just to take another look at it again. I also think it would look good matted and framed on one of the white walls of my house. So yeah, I like it.

It looks like the two lower hands (a L and R) belong together, which leaves the third hand by itself. I would have expected an even number of hands to be pressing against the glass. Did the second person have only one arm? Is the second person making only a half-hearted attempt to get through the glass? What's going on back there? Why an odd number of hands?

This photo shows me how amazing the mind is at resolving rather vague information. I can see the woman whose hands are the lower pair, her arms (white), her dark short-sleeved shirt, her dark head, and the man next to her, whose hand is the upper one. He too is wearing a dark shirt and his head is dark as well. Going back and forth from the thumbnail to a larger view helps to visually clarify the content.
It reminds me of the TV show 'The Prisoner' when, after attempting escape, the prisoner was ultimately trapped in a translucent balloon.
It is a good image to invoke curiosity and stimulate imagination. A problem for me is that once I saw the people in the background, I can't un-see them. From that point on, my interest is diminished.
Regards, John

I like this image a lot. There is a playfulness at work here and it's exactly the odd number of hands that make it unique. I don't feel the "horror effect" as mentioned. Narrow depth of focus has often been used to direct attention and by using the frosted glass the depth is reduced to a single point of the finger tips which adds the all important element of impact to the image. It stops you. I think the composition shows good placement and a sensitivity for the very graphic nature of the elements. Well done, Maria!

photographs are meant to GRAB the viewer; reach through the artificial wall of a photo's physical material flatness, and make "something" real happen inside a flesh and blood human, whatever the viewer's interpretation might be. obviously Maria understands this; maybe this image here is her metaphor for this basic element of a photograph's purpose. her works are bold and skillfully rendered, and i hope she continues to try to grab us ;-} dp