Abyaneh, my past...

I think Alf has described your fine work with this compositon most aptly Hamid. I find it a most beautiful image. I've not been on PN much the last month and find it such a treat to see such fine work!

Warmest regards, Gail

Dear friends,

Sincere thanks for your nice comments and generous rates. Highly gratitude and much appreciated.

Charlie: This is a multishot photograph at different exposures, blended manually for greatest handling of such burden of dynamism, one of them specially estimated for the model. Finally i burned that shot to fit the whole light of the scene. No reflector used.

William: I completely agree with you. I used signature in my recent works, only because i forced to do so, as i see many of my pictures in different sites, used without notice of the photographer name or copy rights. I personally prefer most photos without signature or framing. I uploaded this capture in my site ( hamid-reza-farzandian.artistwebsites.com ) signature-free and full size ready for print sale.

Gail:

I'm so happy to see your comment and hear from you, and welcome back.

My best regards,

Hamid.

Hamid, if you have uploaded a full-size, ready-to-print photograph on your site, that photo would be very vulnerable to theft and unauthorized use, I believe.  I think the only way to minimize theft is to post relatively small, low resolution photos that cannot be used in print.  I don't think there is a good way to protect unauthorized web use.  However, I have seen some signatures or copyright symbols that are formed by raising part of the image in a 3-dimensional way, and these would be extremely difficult or impossible to erase (your signature on this photo would be extremely easy to erase, and it's really not giving you much protection).  There is new photo identification software being developed that will search the web for your photo just based on the content of that photo, and at least it will be much easier to find unauthorized use.  It is a difficult dilemma.

Hamid, I looked at the photos on your website, and I think you are as protected as you can be -- the photos are very small jpegs, good for web viewing but essentially impossible (IMO) for use in printing because of their small size.

Stephen: Thank you for thoughtful and so beneficial note, i 100% agree with you, and the ways about "signaturing" in bold 3D methods. Actually by uploading a picture in 850 larger dimension, i permit its download, and have no problem with any use of it in this size, i just annoy from publishing it in different or no names. By signaturing it, any use will be done with my name. Cloning the signature is not actually easy, and if done, is easily detectable as such. The full size of my site is completely viewable at actual size, but is not downloadable. Thank you again for your kind words

My best wishes,

Hamid.

Hi Hamid,

Wonderful light-effect...................Best Regards,KA

Hamid,

Thank you so much for taking the time to explain things a little. I am still learning. My goal is to one day master such techniques to create images with such vibrant color and light. You can almost feel the light in the photo.

Thanks Again,

Charlie

This is a beautifully composed image with attractive light-effect. The color scheme is perfect for the expression of the girl in the foreground as well as for the splendid sky. The placement of the girl in the foreground is simply masterful.  The two parallel lines starting from the foreground are definitely enhancing the strength of the composition. IMHO, the brightness of the sun in the middle of the composition is too high for the emotional tonality of the image. I think the high amount lightness is required for justifying the details on the side walls, but, to me, the strong light in the middle, with its very high attention-value, is contradicting the dramatic nature of the composition.

It’s an excellent composition with artistic value.  Best rating. Best regards.

So much thanks for your support and positive inputs, dear friends! And thank you for your kind ratings. Very much appreciated.

Sumon: Thank you for your interest and insightful comment. Light control in such extreme conditions is tricky and challenging somewhat. In one side you can end up in a image with flat equal tonality and high detailed shadows and highlights, and in other side you can end up with high contrast detail-free shadows and highlights. Both are largely taste-dependent and personal. And i think middle are of these two extremes is so wide and with many options and variations, and although you might confront with many problems and flaws. I,m now trying and teaching, from my flaws and your kind comments.... Thank you!

My best wishes,

Hamid. 

This is nicely composed, Hamid.  Obviously the exposure is spot-on due to the blending and meticulous processing.  This is very well done.  But to me it all looks unreal and overly staged.  I feel that this is more of a Still Life/Studio combined with Digital Alteration than it is a Landscape.  For me, a landscape should be sculpted more by nature than by the photographer.  But, in this day of HDR & such, I realize that my viewpoint is going the way of the dinosaur.  Regards, Jeff

Jeff! Thank you for your thoughtful comment and taking time to visit and write . Much appreciated. This is a controversial item, as many nature landscape photographers cited in forums, critiques and POW. I know and realize what you want to say. I think, this is the meaning and nature of the art. Whats the art, in ts strict sense? My definition is : What way you choose to express yourself and your thoughts, as painting, writing, photography and so on. And in photography domain, what you present is what you think. In landscape photography, mostly what beauty you see is personal and taste-dependent, and mos see what they want to see. Any picture right from camera would be nice, but after that any you change in it is some sort of changes that you want to be and to see. This is self expression. This is one spectrum, and continue to changes like HDR, blending, time lapse, manips, montage, digital painting, brushes, shading and digital alterations. This phenomenon also takes place in motion pictures. This is not a still life , studio photo or digital alteration, as i agree is not also a landscape shot! Thank you dear friend for sharing your thoughts.

My best regards,

Hamid.

Excellent my friend!!

Congratulations, best regards, vf

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.

Congratulations, Hamid. Best wishes.

My verdict. It's okay. It has all the right elements: exotic setting, exotic character, underexposure. I like the blazing of either the setting or rising sun.

Is it a great photograph. No. There is way too much of cookie cutter art here. It is a photograph that meets expectations but offers no original insights and does not challenge the viewer's world view.

But in terms of composition, I really cannot fault this photograph. It does everything right. It is like the perfect job application. You are impressed, but something is missing. You put it aside with the others just like it.

I should add that I like the stream running through the middle of the narrow street. Reminds of Freiburg im Breisgau where I lived a year of my ill-spent youth.

Beyond incredible !

Very nice lighting and a good composition in this narrow alley.

Congratulations Hamid... Best regards.

It is a photograph that meets expectations but offers no original insights and does not challenge the viewer's world view.
Thankyou!
I am happy and honored for selection of my photo for picture of the week. Unfortunately im going to a trip and i will not here for three weeks. This time is persian new year ceremony and longest vacation time over the year that busy persons like me have the chance to go to trips and phototreks. Nowrooz, the new year ceremony in iran, begins in the first day of spring and longs thirteen days, till nature day which in the the thirteen's. This ceremony has over 2500 years history and is very invaluable for iranians. I will answer all the comments and questions after coming back . I highly respect all opinions and learn from your nice suggestions.
Alex: Thank you for your honest comment. I agree, but it is and it was so challenging for myself to creating it.
My best regards,
Hamid.

I love the light here and the way it illuminates the upper edges of the buildings, and there's very nice detail in the brickwork and stone walls. Very nice d.o.f. as well. What I don't like is what looks like a pole running vertically up the left side. It sort of splits part of the frame off at the left and breaks the continuity for me. I think someone said that's water running through the middle? If that's what it is, I wouldn't have known what it is unless it had been mentioned. Not sure what, if anything, the girl is doing...she looks like a set up, put there merely to add a human element to the photograph. It doesn't quite work. But overall, I like it okay...again, mostly for the light and detail.

My first thought when viewing Hamid's photograph has to do with a technical aspect. This photograph is a good example of one of the promises of digital editing, that being the expansion of the range of light that can be represented in a single photograph, an expansion that is now relatively easy to achieve and that therefore can be used by more photographers to overcome the inherent limitation of dynamic range of film and sensors. Hamid had a very difficult lighting situation when his camera included the sun near the center of the frame and with shadows in other parts of the frame. Given the conditions, I think he did pretty well. Yes, the area very near the sun is too bright, and some of the shadow areas (e.g., this side of his daughter's clothing) may be a bit brighter than we might expect (although perhaps I'm seeing it that way just because of decades of being limited by film). Nevertheless, I'm impressed with the amount of color and detail he's been able to show in the sky near the sun and in the narrow passage between the buildings. I've seen similar photographs by others here on photo.net, and it's when I have to look long and close before realizing that software and editing have been applied to achieve the photograph that I think the digital editing has been very skillfully applied.

I agree with Alex that Hamid's photograph offers no original insights and does not challenge the viewer's world view. I don't expect or look for that in every photograph I see. I think those photographs are relatively rare. I do sense that these buildings are quite old and have been used by people for a very long time, and being told by Hamid of their age makes me appreciate the scene even more. Hamid's photograph does prompt me to reflect on the diversity of human living conditions -- this is so different from my little corner of Washington State in the U.S., and it is so different from a very old settlement in Asia in which I lived for two years. That may not challenge my world view, but it does enrich it, and for that I appreciate Hamid's efforts.

Beautiful as it is with the lighting, apart from the blob of white centre frame, it is just another tram-line shot leading me to nothing.

Hello Hamid, First I must say congratulations on having your image selected for POW. There is much I like about the image but especially the young girls shy demeanor, to me that makes the image work. The alley and its colors are fine and the historic reference also but without the human element this would be just another pretty picture. Congrats again on a beautiful image. Take care.
Holger