.: memories :.

There is nothing wrong in ur thinking Sir, Looks are sometimes deseptive.

However this is a good image. I suppose the pic is taken at a grave yard. We should compliment the photographer for getting the right balance between beauty & sorrow.

The composition is balanced in an unexpected way. For I suppose there would one in thousands of a chance to get the right light angle.

The tight focus on the face, with no eyes shown into the pic has really had its effect on us.

I wonder as I look should i complement the person showing the grief or the photographer for his presence of mind or to u for putting it up here.

 

Nice image. Thanks.

I like everything except the strange goings on by the left ear, which looks to be either: photoshop cloning gone amuck, or something entering the plane of focus, a pane of broken glass, perhaps.

I absolutely love the pose, not looking into the camera but away, downwards. The

subdued colours help to make this a very tranquil, thoughtful image. Maybe the

zipper is a bit of a distraction and I wonder if darkening it a bit would help.

 

In my own photographs I generally do not like a blurred foreground; it always

attracts my eye. In this case, I feel the same. I think I would like it better

if it were cropped quite tightly on the right side, or if the model were

positioned differently.

 

I will attach my Photoshop attempt at illustrating the point. I am curious

to see if you agree or if you think I've ruined a perfectly good photo (which

certainly isn't my intention).

Gratuluji k fotce tydne!

Nice composition and very clean picture with great halftones. It's looking like from some ad for vampire movie. Good job.

Excellent coloring. I do prefer Patrick's crop. Omits some of the OOF distractions on the right. Very nice work Václav.

I get the idea behind Patrick's crop, and it does eliminate some out-of-focus areas, though it seems to emphasize elements very differently, in particular making the mouth a more cynosural element than it is (to my eye) in the original. That may appeal to some, certainly, but it alters the balance in the original, which I happen to like. Just one person's opinion, of course. Enjoy.

I agree with Marshall on Patrick's crop. The square crop takes away the depth, and makes it more about the girl than the girl in the cemetary. The elves comment that it is balanced in an unexpected way is, I think, exactly right. I also think that the crop emphasizes that strange stuff going on beside her left ear pointed out by Doug, while the inclusion of the foreground plays it down a bit.

 

I love the tones and the greenish-blue cast; was that entirely natural light or have you played a bit with curves? I'd actually like a bit more depth of focus so I could make out whether that is a tree or gravestone in the foreground a bit more (gravestone?).

 

But a very good photograph, capturing a very tender moment very effectively.

I to wanna know if that was curves or natural light? Great shot.

Did you hire a makeup and hair stylist? That aspect is well done to.

Anyone know what it was shot with?

However the photographers never seem to respond and answer questions in these critique forums about their shots that often...

Nice work

sorry to tell, but i found this pic horrible, and boring all this discussion on ps curves. i can easily understand the need to keep in touch with digital rendering techniques, but in my mind photography is intrisecally different from consumer software knowledge, so i hope photo.net would steer not in a more argentique (as frenchs tell) direction, but in a more photographic one.

well, at the risk of being controversial, but since it is photo of the week and intended to prompt discussion . . . no question a very skillful photograph, beyond my league certainly. but . . . it seems like yet another pretty young blond heavily made-up woman who appears posed in a contrived fashion. In other words, the subject follows conventions that I personally don't find terribly interesting. I admire the photographer's skill greatly, but the photograph leaves me feeling manipulated in a mildly unpleasant way. I am left admiring the technique of the photograph and the photographer, rather than the subject itself. I don't conclude this is a candid moment of a person remembering something of significance. Again, my hats off to Vaclav Sirc for his great skill. I would not have commented so candidly, if this were not a photo of the week offered for discussion.

Personally, I enjoy being manipulated by pretty young women.

 

 

 

 

Within reason, of course, and only on occasion. I don't make a practice of it.

But if you don't practice, Doug, how will you ever get really good at it?

Is Doug calling Vaclav a girl now? Surely it is the photographer who is the manipulator and not the model (she is presumably already getting paid!)? So is what's-his-names' issue that a set-up photo which elicits emotion is a cheat in some way? That pretty much covers most of the industry, I would think...

hi, what's his name here. didn't call it a cheat. far from it, i think this is an exceptionally well done photograph by a masterful photographer. my point was and is that the emotion it elicits in me is affected negatively by what seems to be me to be an obviously contrived situation that relies on conventions that i don't find particularly interesting, given the effect the photo seems to want (somber memories in a graveyard).

Sorry, Ben - I should have tabbed back and checked your name. So, the point you are making is that you don't buy what the title is saying about the image? Maybe you would agree more with Jerry Beecham (hope I got HIS name right!) as he was the first one to comment - "great portrait." I'm just not understanding your point, about these "conventions" you are referring to. So we agree that the picture is excellent, but it doesn't convey to you what Vaclav (apparently) intended by the title? Okay, then.

thanks lee. let me try a little more. the photograph suggests the portrayal of a moment when a graveyard visitor is remembering something, presumably recalling times with a loved one who has passed away. this suggests a candid moment. therefore, evidence of a set-up detracts for me, particularly with the selection as subject of a conventionally pretty young woman dressed and coifed in the latest fashion, an obvious model (if this was a truly candid moment and she not a model, well, i'm far from perfect!). it may sell well -- and it IS a terrific photo -- but it leaves me lukewarm because the manipulation seems to me to be too apparent. i'd prefer a photo of someone less fashionable, less obviously a model, more what i would expect to see in the real world. i'm distracted by the "set-up." you commented that this is most of the industry. maybe that's true, and photographers trying to sell their works are certainly entitled to consider what it takes to do that and employ it. but i'm just a hobbyist, and i confess i have a preference for real people and candid situations generally.

This is amazing! I love it! The colors, the texture in the skin, the pose, everything, it works! I'm astounded! If I had a bigger version of it it'd be my windows background for a LONG while!

The lighting and subdued colors make this work for me. I don't care if the woman is a model or not, or if this is posed or not; the overall effect is very appealing.

This photograph had and has the potential to knock me of my socks, leaving me wondering with more quastions than answers. I don't mind if the pose is somewhat 'traditional', it's great, the mystery of not seeïng the models eyes... it's knowing something without really believing it. It feels like she can and will look up any second... revealing something more of that what's unfolding itself in the photograph...It moves...It's just a damn good picture...enough said.

First, this is a great picture. Her expression, the clever use of color to reinforce the tone of reflection and sadness -- really well done. But are those cloning marks on her left cheek? It looks like a clone or perhaps healing that was overdone a tad, and should be correctible in what I think is an otherwise super job.

The overall greenish tone makes a good unity ... as well as a strange effect: a mix of warmth(yellow) and coldness(blue) (and I didn't say lukewarm),

the work on DOF and focus manages to bring firstly the viewer closer to the feeling intented but quickly after to think that it is just a setup...

An overall very clean (except the strange part that Lynx-Eye-Doug mentionned too, above the left hear)and nice shot... a bit too clean to fit the thema of 'memories' in my opinion...

I remember a shot by Rene A HERE that fit well the notion of image that are progressively desappearing from our memory ... and demonstrating that somehow memories of happiness are not necessarily becoming sad with time..

How does the image show us anything that is in any way related to the stated theme in the title? I see a beautiful woman who may or may not be a model. I see sharp lips, eyelashes, and strands of hair, as well as a distracting dark shape by her ear that Doug has pointed out. I see a deliberately shallow DOF that blurs the snaps and zipper and also a larger undefined, yet bright area. I also see a large foreground element, again blurred, that Patrick has mostly cropped out. It could be a tree, but I can't really tell.

 

I also see a deliberate desaturation of all colors except for greenish blue which has become quite popular, but really does little to convey a specific feeling, especially the one suggested in the title.

 

This is another one of those times where I'd like to see the whole roll - or whatever we're calling multiple shot sessions these days - to see if there are any that blur everything but her face, yet still allow us to get a sense of where she is without benefit of the title. Otherwise, what's the point?

Hey, wait a minute! I got it! I got it! The funny, blurry, thingy on her left side is the end of a cross-member board of an actual cross. She is actually looking down unto a grave and this is the cross on the grave. Now I like it! I really, really, like it!

I love the photograph itself, but I don't think the title and the apparent intent to evoke graveside atmosphere are successful. If it weren't for reading this discussion, I would never have figured that out. I though it might have been wood from a fence. Nevertheless, the image seems to be an excellent glamour photo, great for a magazine or an advertisement, just not successful in portraying emotion or 'memories'. Perhaps I'm just not perceptive enough to catch the hints.

Totaly awesome portrait. Too many photos of ladies look contrived with grotesque smiles, this one has real emotion. Excellent....well done