Nothing In Hand Photo

Photographer’s Note

When photographing people, the face often draws most of the attention, though in my opinion the hands can be equally expressive - more photographs of hands please!

The hands on this picture belongs to an old Nepali woman, from the Kathmandu Valley. If you would like a face to go with the hands, take a look at my upload titled "Tamang Woman".

PP: Cropping, Colour to greyscale, Contrast adjustment.

CMJC, BennyV, gelor, Anna--, Merline has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

brandstaetter (14158) 2009-01-27 21:19

Hi Soren,
the concept, the crop and the subject are great. I´m not sure about the postprocessing. Maybe a bit too much contrast or maybe you used a cleaning filter ? The skin looks like wax, a bit.
Cheers, I´m sure that the original is a masterpiece :)
Christian

filidor (665) 2009-01-27 22:45

I am follow "brandstaetter". But anyway conception in photography is the key - so Your way of show the picture is excellent.

amaryllis (17549) 2009-01-28 1:07

Bonjour Soren
je reste en extase devant cette photo réalisée avec beaucoup de technicité, des vieilles mains, en plus positionnées ainsi, c'est vraiment une superbe réalisation
juliette

Valerka (8159) 2009-01-28 1:30

Hello, Soren,
A wonderful take,very clever.
This shot is about life and its philosophy.
TFS
Valerka:)

CMJC (3126) 2009-01-28 1:42

ces mains ne sont pas vides! elles sont pleins d'une vie sûrement rude...
très beau travail pour isoler les mains et ajouter aussi un peu de contratse et de netteté par rapport à "Tamang Woman". le résultat est vraiment "great"!

BennyV (4739) 2009-01-28 3:30

Hello Soren,

I agree with you on the expressiveness of hands and this is a really great shot to illustrate this. Like a meditation. Great background too.
The only thing I'm not so convinced about is the title, which suggests playfulness and innocence (a magic trick) to me, whereas these hands seem rather experienced and serious to me.

Benny

gelor (3224) 2009-01-28 8:35

Bonsoir Soren,
Un au-delà du réel ! Original et bien traité. Bravo.
Gérard

Anna-- (7739) 2009-01-28 9:55

Ciao Soren,
I like more picture like this one than the portraits.
Really an excellent realisation with these "telling" hands in this black.
Compliments
Regards
Anna

CaesarP (3620) 2009-01-28 14:41

Hello Soren,
very artistic job, great composition,
Regards Caesar

Merline (6578) 2009-01-30 6:51

Hi Soren,
This is already very good, the old, experienced hands popping out of the dark background, very telling..., I hope to see more. But like Christian I think you overdid it with some of the PP work. I can see traces of oversharpening and too much contrast. It looks like you did some cleaning process (maybe Neatimage) too. I would try to work at them again from scratch, this photograph really deserves it.

Best regards
Michèle

cayden (1687) 2009-02-24 22:00

Hi Soren,
I agree with you, you can see the short story of life on hands. Great contrasted and picture.
TFS
Cem