¡Why this very famous photographer cut off partof my head?

[Catalina]

[Daisy Mae]

I have no idea!

It is a very, very tight crop all around...was there anything going on around you that the photographer had to crop out that made him/her go for such a brutal crop?

[rpcrowe]

Perhaps the photographer was used to shooting with a camera which only showed 90-95% of the image in the viewfinder and thus got a bit sloppy about framing if switching over to a camera with 100% viewfinder.

[Manfred M]

Frankly, if this was done by a "famous photographer", he wasn't shooting particularly well that day. There is really nothing wrong with cropping parts of the body, especially the head, but I find that this image does not work for me in a number of ways.

[Catalina]

Thank you for your comments, I learn a lot from you. I thought that he prefered to cut my head and not to cut my hands or my girl hands, and yes the photo was taken in an interior fullof distracting things

[Catalina]

Thank you for your interest and comments, could you explain to me, so I can learn, what are those other reasons this photo does not work for you?

[Catalina]

I think the face of my daughter, cristina, has much more light tan is nedded, she looks pale.

[Manfred M]

Thank you for your comments, I learn a lot from you. I thought that he prefered to cut my head and not to cut my hands or my girl hands, and yes the photo was taken in an interior fullof distracting things

I find that the image itself looks rather desaturated, the crop of you does not work (this is the part you don't like either), the lighting is not very interesting (it is very flat) and the background gets in the way of the image.

[rpcrowe]

Is this a scan from a photo print? Additionally, is it possible that this is a scan from a proof print? I was wondering if this was from a proof print, perhaps the photographer purposefully made this odd crop so it could not be scanned/copied and printed into a good image and thus costing the photographer some sales. That is just a wild guess and is probably not the case...

Additionally, if this is a scan from a print, could that print have been physically trimmed? Perhaps so it could have fit into some album or other display mode.

Additionally; I fear that we are going to lose several generations of color images which will have faded over the years. This is especially true if the prints have not been stored under archival conditions. One of the greatest culprits in ruining color images is the clear document protector, designed to store and protect sheets of text material. These document protectors react with the color print and tend to destroy their color and contrast.

OTOH: I have many family archive B&W photo prints that are well over a hundred years old. Although, they have not been stored under optimum conditions; they are still perfectly good...

[Loose Canon]

It would have to be for one of the aforementioned reasons to prevent bootlegging and for preview purposes. It and the other two you posted of the young man look like they came off of a contact sheet.

Otherwise, with this kind of "quality" this person could never have become "very famous".

[Catalina]

Additionally; I fear that we are going to lose several generations of color images which will have faded over the years. This is [QUOTE]especially true if the prints have not been stored under archival conditions. One of the greatest culprits in ruining color images is the clear document protector, designed to store and protect sheets of text material. These document protectors react with the color print and tend to destroy their color and cont

I try putting them in a dry place inside a tight cardboard box to protect the old color pictures better what they suffer damage. When I studied photography they said that what preserves them better is an album of black carton pages. So I bought one but I still cannot find the opportunity to place my photos inside

These pictures that I published in this site yesterday were preserved in this way for more or less 12 years.

I have and old scanner, so the real photos are in better shape in the real world than the way they appear in the net.

Thank you for your long comments they were very valuable for me.

[Catalina]

I will preserve better those photos if I have them in the hard disk of my pc.

My reason to publish them is that they mean a lot to me, and even if I didn't shot them, I want to learn from your criticism.

And yes, this photographer is famous in my city. It cost us a fortune t to hire him.

[Catalina]

I find that the image itself looks rather desaturated, the crop of you does not work (this is the part you don't like either), the lighting is not very interesting (it is very flat) and the background gets in the way of the image.

I want to learn to shoot photos in the family reunions, so what can be done to avoid a bad background, move the furniture around and the big paintings that are on the living room?
Take a shoot the closest possible so there is less background?

[Catalina]

It would have to be for one of the aforementioned reasons to prevent bootlegging and for preview purposes. It and the other two you posted of the young man look like they came off of a contact sheet.

Otherwise, with this kind of "quality" this person could never have become "very famous".

Wow you guessed it, one of them comes from a contact sheet.

He made some cuts with a marker and later tried to frame them in the format 13 x18 or 20x25

[Catalina]

I have no idea!

It is a very, very tight crop all around...was there anything going on around you that the photographer had to crop out that made him/her go for such a brutal crop?

Yes there was a lot of furniture and paintings on most of the wall.

Do you recommend that I use curtains as a good background when taking photos in the living of my house?

[Manfred M]

Catalina - I suggest you look at the work of other photographers doing the type of situation(s) you are trying to photograph. When you see something you like, try to figure out why you like it and what was done to create the impact. You are posting things that you do not like; this is a good start, but now try to go to something more positive and figure out what you do like!

I personally find that group shots, as per your wanted to get shots at family reunions (the larger the group, the harder to get a good shot) are hardest to do, as there is always somebody doing something strange that ruins the image. The best technique I know is to get the group to focus and then tale lots of shots, hopefully some will be better than others.

[Catalina]

In regards to family groups as being difficult to photography, I will take note of this.

It is important to focus on the positive things that I want to accomplish, but I am still taking my first 10,000 photographs.

One of the positive things about my work in portrait is that I often can catch expressions that come from the soul of the subject that I am choosing.