My mother

[Catalina]

I took this photograph of my mother with natural light the only processing is cutting

[Catalina]

Ys it was a challenge to manage the camera in manual with natural light

[Catalina]

Can any one comment? I know it is my first time here and I made a mistake of asking for comments

[Mark von Kanel]

Hi Catalina,

may i sudgest you read Colins school of portraiture thread and come back and tell us what you think of the image? it certainly got me thinking about my work.

School of Portraiture - Links to Lessons 1 through 8

[Colin Southern]

Hi Catalina,

It looks good to me, although perhaps just a little dark.

I'm a bit short on time right now, but I've given it a quick re-process just to show you what I mean ...



Hope this helps

[FrankMi]

Can any one comment? I know it is my first time here and I made a mistake of asking for comments

Hi Catalina, please don't be discouraged if you don't get an immediate response to your request for comments. Although there are folks that log into the forum from around the world, they are not always on at the time you post and if they are like me, with absolutely no skill in portraiture, I would not want to waste your time reading meaningless drivel so I might not respond even though I view and enjoy the results of your efforts. I've never seen a post go unanswered but depending upon circumstances at the time, it might take a while.

The picture looks good to me, particularly with Colin's increasing the brightness a bit. Thank you for sharing!

If you could, pop over to Forum Actions (at the top of the forum page) and update your profile with the name you'd like us to address you by and your general location. Thanks!

[Colin Southern]

Hi Catalina, please don't be discouraged if you don't get an immediate response to your request for comments.

Possibly a good time for me to add my apologies too - I generally work from the latest threads listing, and occasionally there's so much activity that it scrolls off the bottom of the list and I don't see it (as was the case here I think).

[Donald]

Hi Catalina, please don't be discouraged if you don't get an immediate response to your request for comments.

The other thing can be that posts come in that fast to the forum that messages can get pushed down the Latest Threads list and be missed (ED - just as Colin was writing at the same time as me). for example, I didn't see this one the list until Franks' reply above brought it back in.

So, as Frank says, please do not be discouraged. No-one is trying to be rude or to suggest your contribution is not important.

And you even get the honour of the portrait-master (aka Mr Southern) coming in with a comment.

[Colin Southern]

And you even get the honour of the portrait-master (aka Mr Southern) coming in with a comment.

Cough ... cough ... cough cough cough cough cough ...

*** off to the doctor to have my cough seen to! ***

[Catalina]

Thank you for your postings. They were very helpful and cherred me up. The director of the academy of photography criticize my work a lot. He even told me that my parents were dressed in rags
I a honored and grateful with Mr Southern.
I a very grateful for the time taken processing the photo.

[Donald]

I am very happy that the responses you received have been helpful. I think the director of the academy is a very rude person, but I appreciate that if you are studying there it might be difficult to challenge some of these inappropriate remarks.

Now that you have posted your first image onto CiC, I hope you will post more in the future. And do not be disheartened if it takes people some time to reply.

Another question - Where are you located? So that you don't continue to get people asking you this, you can go to 'Edit Profile' and enter your location so that it will appear alongside all your posts, just as in my details alongside this message. Then we all know where everyone is in the world.

[Colin Southern]

The director of the academy of photography criticize my work a lot. He even told me that my parents were dressed in rags

I read the story of a famous martial arts movie star who came home one day and found his wife in bed with another man. If you'd ever seen this guy doing his martial arts in movies you'd know that he was absolutely lethal -- and pretty much the last person on earth I'd want to be would be the guy he just caught in bed with his wife! When asked if he "beat the guy up" he replied - no, I walked away. Asked why, he replied "there's no point !being the champ if you don't act like the champ". I think that at this point I have more respect for him than I do for your director of the academy!

Keep in mind though - that as your photography progresses, you'll get a lot of advice from a lot of people. Some of that advice will be good - some of it will be bad. All of it will probably be "well intentioned", but ultimately, only you can decide if it's the right advice for you. The best advice I can think of is "listen to what people have to say" but also "think about it", and ask yourself "do I agree with them" (and thus learn something new for next time), or alternatively think "no, I like it better the way I'm already doing it".

If you followed someones advice completely (and all the time) chances are you'd only end up producing the same kind of photos that they do.

With regards to your mother's clothing though ... normally, portraits are all about the face - so usually, darker clothing helps to draw the eye in towards the face (and for the same reason, we prefer long-sleeved clothes). So perhaps next time, consider darker clothing (without a strong pattern or colour though).

Hope this helps

[Catalina]

Mr Colin
You have been very nice. thanks.
I could not be more grateful!!!!

[The Blue Boy]

Hi Catalina,

Welcome to the forums.

The above advice is, as always top stuff.

As regards the remarks from this so called "director of the academy", I think I would ignore them. I've currently got four friends doing their BA in photography in Newport, Wales university (Considered one of the best in the UK for photography) and some of the comments made by their tutors are of a very similar ilk.

We have a saying here in the UK that goes "Those that can, do. Those that can't, teach."

That said, stick with it, and more importantly stay here and learn!

[Viana]

Hi Catalina:

Welcome to the forum. Don’t worry about people not responding immediately to your post. Many of us work in other fields and with a serious, time consuming hobby like photography, we are very busy. Sometimes posting on a weekend will get more rapid responses.

I think this is a lovely photo of your mother. She looks like a kind lady.

I have taken the liberty of adjusting the photo a bit to show you another possibility. I agree that it is a little dark. Digital cameras tend to exaggerate shadows, so I have softened those a bit, adjusted the white balance to remove the blue colour-cast, added a vignette to focus on the face and only sharpened the eyes.

As was mentioned, in the end you are the only one who can decide how a photo, that you took, should look. It is your art.

The director of the academy of photography criticize my work a lot. He even told me that my parents were dressed in rags
.

That is pretty stunning and also funny. I presume that you live in a nation where dressing to impress is important? In the U. S. and the U.K. people dress so casually these days, one would think that all many people own are “rags”—torn tee-shirts and jeans with holes in them are all the rage. Do you remember the late Steve Jobs, the Apple computer genius? His uniform was a black mock-turtle shirt and jeans. He could have afforded to wear solid gold clothing. People who are very productive often do not care very much about appearance.

The “Director” probably has political connections. Have you seen the work of your teacher?

There is a saying in English: “Those who can, do; those who can’t teach.”

You may end up learning more from the net and places like CiC than the hypercritical “director.”

[stg]

Technicalities aside, a good portrait is much more than just a "shot of a head". Above all it's about feelings and expressions.