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Not Your Average Little Old Lady

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Mel Brackstone 2 months ago

This is an impressive piece, her whole demeanour is compelling, but those eyes make me want to hide behind the door in case lightning bolts flash out of them! Fab work Lars!

Sidharcher 2 months ago

Fantastic portrait!

mohsen etemadifar 2 months ago

Amazing portrait !

Nikolay Shopov 4 months ago

impressive !

mohsen etemadifar 7 months ago

amazing work !

Rainer Brunotte 1 year ago

oh wow! quite unusual! bit scary!

Jerrica Raglin 2 years ago

Quite an interesting portrait. :)

ksenija mikor 2 years ago

o my God. perfect

zoodiac 2 years ago

thats scary! :)

Naumadd 2 years ago

Hey Lars, my main preoccupation is the writing of Japanese haiku, senryu, tanka poetry and I wrote a short piece to go with this. Call it a little encounter of two people getting off the bus. Anyway, you can find it at http://naumaddicpieces.blogspot.com/ .

"Her third bus, she says
he used to take her
to watch the starlings."

Love the photo. These character shots, particularly of older people, always have so much to tell and you've captured her at what seems to be a happy moment of reflection. Hope you like the verse.

Ali Morshedlou 2 years ago

Great work,fantastic....

Hamry Wabula 2 years ago

beautiful colors have made this a wonderful Potrait. fortunately, the white light at the top does not look so perfect that no effect ....
nice work...

Cheron 2 years ago

Well done !
Fantastic portrait !!!

Calcifer 2 years ago

years on her face

Bill Mangold 2 years ago

A stunning photograph Lars, I love it. I agree with Ursula, there are a multitude of wonderful images that don't follow the rules that so many of the pretentiously pious "expert photographers" here hold so dearly.

Jacob Jovelou 2 years ago

I really like this photo and publishing it was the right thing to do.

If anyone has comments about the screening process they are welcome to send them to me by OEmail, not here. Such comments will be deleted.

/ Jacob

Daniel Portal 2 years ago

one more ignorant likes it, Lars...me

Monika Gniot 2 years ago

I don´t know what you people want? this is a photo you want to look a long time for, very interesting, the colors, everything, ok maybe the eyes are to green, but still the one of most interesting portrait I have ever seen
Lars believe in your self, look so many comments you got, this has to be one god picture or? best regards

Lars D. Terkelsen 2 years ago

Hi everybody! It just occured to me how I really view this picture. Roberts comments about being a Portrait Photographer made me realize that I don´t see this as a portrait, and therefore I don´t feel that I must subscribe to the rules of Portrait Photographers.
What I do see is a scene from a film. A film where this little old lady plays a part of crucial importance. And several places this film crosses the lines of realism, and one is never too sure about whether or not something is "real".

This also explains to myself why I have been feeling that a remark like "no eye contact is a flaw" is utterly missing the boat. That may work as a dogma for you Portrait people, but if we were at the film set, the director would be yelling: "Don´t f**king look into the camera!", haha. It also explains why I really don´t get remarks such as "wrong WB". In the film world people use WB (colour grading) in creative ways to fit a mood. They care about the mood not the rules of Portraits.

Thanks for being a learning-vehicle for me, and sorry if I have over-reacted here or there. It has been overwhelming and confusing to get a lump of fresh dog shit in one hand and a sweet smelling rose in the other.

Cheers!

Balazs Pataki "That may work as a dogma for you Portrait people, but if we were at the film set, the director would be yelling: "Don´t f**king look into the camera!", haha."

But this is no film, haha. And from now on my advice to all and any rejected portrait shots will be to color the eyes, hehe. And this is just another example for how much screening has become a matter of luck, hihi. Now people call it good because it was published while in Critique it would be blown to pieces, hoho. Not as if I cared, huhu...

Lars D. Terkelsen Yeah, go ahead, make fun of the way I write. Though I would not say that it makes you look very mature. And you know, you keep saying "Not as if I cared". It does not take a degree in psychology to figure out that you actually do care. Who are you trying to fool?

Robert Hutinski so, you are not only musician you are also film director. well, fine; but your are miles from photographer. you are just fresh horse with camera. for beginer this is ok. and as i sad before: time will tells everything.

good night and good luck

Lars D. Terkelsen Ooh, well spoken.
And no, I am not a film director, only a film composer. If being a photographer means sitting so high on your horse as you, I will humbly and happily decline from such a title. I am an Absolute Beginner in this domain. That I will certainly agree on.

Ursula I Abresch 2 years ago

Beautiful picture! I love the colour. I'm very glad to see it on the front page. Please don't let the people who always think their own views and pictures are better than anyone else's scare you away. They are simply sour people not worth wasting time on.

Thomas Ljungberg 2 years ago

Glad to see this on the front page. Cool image of a cool lady. Stick with your vision and disregard all the strange comments below.

People have different thoughts and goals with their photography, I'm always surprised by how narrow minded and intolerant people can be to other artists work.

Keep with it, it's a great photo!

Lucian Olteanu 2 years ago

Stunning!!!This is one of the best pictures published ever on 1x!!

Lars D. Terkelsen Thanks Lucian! Given the lengthy catalog you have on 1X, your remark is quite interesting.
I think it is safe to say, that there are mixed opinions about this one (to say the least). From "poor snapshot" to "one of the best ever on 1x" must be some kind of achievement in itself, haha!

sasson haviv 2 years ago

hello lars :)
i am not 100% on the eyes but i do like the effect and the story behind. i love the portrait....
1x is a gallery of many styles and i am looking forward to see more of yours here they are very good. do not trouble yourself just do what you like!!!
do not be offended by others here.... after all many choose to publish it as it is and it passed the screeners as well
take care
sassi

Lars D. Terkelsen Thanks Sassi. I know I am a sensitive person, and yes, I am troubled about this. So I really appreciate your support.

sasson haviv this is a very good place to learn not to be sensitive :)
usually it is with the rejections and not with the published images.....
in any case i believe that as we learn we need to open our mind to new ways of photography and processing. i am a beginner as well :)
do not trouble yourself
it is good to have discussions about an image although not very common.
by the way you will find that Balazs is one of the nicest people on this site.

Lars D. Terkelsen "by the way you will find that Balazs is one of the nicest people on this site."
I am not sure. He has just tried to make fun of the way I write in the most childish and immature way. His comments was deleted but the memory lingers on.

I must admit that a few of these very Big Photographers we have seen here today comes across as quite small people. They may have reached a high level in their field of Photography, but as humans they seem to have ample room for development. Good luck with that.

sasson haviv with time here you will see a different image of what you feel today. balasz has a sarcastic humor which i like but he truly is one of the nicest people here . by the way most people here are advanced amateurs... not professionals. many times i think they are more advanced then the professional ones though.
today's reaction is very uncommon... it is actually the first time that i see it in the 7 months i am involved with this site.
dont trouble yourself its not worth it.. and probably will not repeat itself

Dave Nitsche 2 years ago

I like it. I published it and I stand by doing so. If some can't see the value in this shot it's a shame.

Balazs Pataki With all due respect Dave, could you - as a well-established still-life/conceptual photographer - be a little bit more specific about the values of this people shot? I suppose you were made a screener for reason and I'd like to learn if there's something to it the critics have overseen, either by being shamefully stupid or just unable to think out of the box. "I published it coz I liked it, period" is a little vague justification. Of course you don't have to justify your decisions... but you made me really curious.
I mentioned your genre because it offers us the point-of-view of someone not involved in people photography. This could be quite refreshing and original. So please, please.

Dave Nitsche Balazs, no problem. It's engaging, different and holds the viewers attention. Yeah, the eye's aren't steeped in reality but have you seen any actor these days? Genetic engineering couldn't create emerald eyes like theirs but, they do exist. So is it out of the realm of reality? No. The color balance is on the yellow side but works fine in this image as it plays along with the emerald theme. Colors are balanced from border to border. The skin tones are fine and aren't harmed by the yellow cast in the image, in fact they work very well. As for the green snow flake comment, well, doesn't bother me a bit.

The thing I love about this image is that it puts my eyes right on her's. I feel I could talk to this lady, or that I am. The photographer was honest in his capture. Maybe not in tonality but in emotional content. The comp is wonderful and the DOF is right where it should be.

I'm honestly surprised by some of the comments here. People focusing so hard on the eyes and other little points. I've seen many wrinkled faces here that are cooked a lot more than this one and make the wrinkles just scream out at you. If people walked around like THAT in real life kids would be crying and screaming that the monsters are coming to take them away. Since Dragan started doing it years ago people have gone crazy with it to the point of hilarity and it's so over done it's boring.

In the end I feel warmth and an engaging quality to this image. Some see an image they think 'boring at best' others might see this as a pretty cool pic. I'm one of them.

Also, no one is being shamefully stupid, it all comes down to taste and my opinion is just that, my opinion.

Vlad Dumitrescu 2 years ago

Hi Lars,
I voted for this one and I say: I like it very much!
Of course your touch of "supernatural" is very visible and yes, I think it would have been better to be in "creative edit" category.
But it's a story; it's your story... stories are not real, but they are amazing!
what would we be without our stories? ;o)
Congrats!

benoit paille 2 years ago

boring at the best ... poor snapshot

Lars D. Terkelsen Thanks. I like this response better than: "You were lucky with this one, congratulations."
When I look at your work I can see what you mean by snapshot. Perhaps "poor" was overdoing it a bit, but I understand. It must feel degrading for your work to be on the same site as bad snapshots. (I am not being ironic or sarcastic). I honestly think you should complain to 1X about it.

Thomas Holtkoetter Benoit,

your comment is without any substance, without respect but only offending.
The edited eyes have alreay been discussed below.
Offending at the best ..... poor comment.

sasson haviv benoit that is very arrogant to say ....
you have good photos i agree.. so what
human relations is more important
this isnt boring and far from a poor snapshot

Lars D. Terkelsen 2 years ago

I have now uploaded a BW version which is certainly less offensive. It is up to the screeners to decide if it is more suitable for 1X.

Lars D. Terkelsen -and I would also like the screeners to think about if there has been a mistake about this photo. I they have second thoughts about it, I would prefer this photo to be deleted from 1X, as it serves nobody to have inferior stuff published here.

Thomas Ljungberg No mistake, no second thoughts, not inferior!

Judy W 2 years ago

Oh I already commented. HAHA Great shot.

Lars D. Terkelsen Thanks anyway :-)

Balazs Pataki 2 years ago

Difficult... on the one hand, if it would be in Critique it was easy to point out the many flaws - WB, noise, overediting (or the impression of it), lack of eyecontact, distractive elements. On the other hand, one couldn't say the publication is not justified because the photo does have a certain beauty. Yellow and blue tones always look good together and the snowflakes add a feeling of dimension and space (one generic problem with portraits is that they are usually flat, meaning very 2-dimensional). Unfortunately, the green tint caused the snowflakes to appear greenish (especially on the left side) which is not very nice. As to the editing, the power of the image comes obviously from the weird eyes and if this was made by post-editing - and judged by your replies this was the case - it is not something to be proud of. But probably this is the trend, and what people want to see... so see if I care. You were lucky with this one, congratulations.

Lars D. Terkelsen "You were lucky with this one, congratulations."

The more I think about this sentence, the more it strikes me as incredibly arrogant.

Lars D. Terkelsen "..not something to be proud of." Hmm, interesting. I can see from your photos, that you are dealing in telling true stories. Stories that need to be told, and need to be believed. I totally respect that, but it feels like you are forcing your dogma unto my picture.
I did not say I am telling the truth here. I might be telling a fairytale. I might be telling a dream. I might be telling a memory. Or I might be telling the truth.

Hehe, and it is too noisy also. And WB: It is greenish, so? What if I like a greenish tint? So there is a general consensus againt this?
Seriously: Should it have been in "Creative Edits" instead?

Balazs Pataki Hello Lars. I don't give a damn about how a photo is made until it impresses me. Without the weird eyes this photo wouldn't be too impressive. But OK, let's take it as your own personal dream story and forget about editing. What I don't like here is that the photo has lots of flaws which are usually very common reasons for rejection, and if photos like this are published, it no longer makes sense to sweat blood in Critique to improve shots rejected for overediting, disturbing elements, wrong WB and lack of eye contact. This photo has them all. Of course a photo can be impressive and great even with all these flaws. We have a forum topic about all the flaws in famous photographs. But if so, please let's close the Critique channel down and just say, "the only criteria for publication is popularity in screening".

Lars D. Terkelsen I think you should talk to the staff about this. As I already wrote: "-and I would also like the screeners to think about if there has been a mistake about this photo. I they have second thoughts about it, I would prefer this photo to be deleted from 1X, as it serves nobody to have inferior stuff published here."

Oh, you forgot the noise on your list of flaws ;-)

I do find it quite intriguing that one can talk about wrong WB in the context of "art". To me it is just a choice one makes. To me that would be like complaining about lack of colours on a monochrome photo. Or to say: The colours are all wrong on that polaroid! If you are making a portrait of the prime minister, you should have a "correct" WB, but here? C´mon how narrow-minded is that?

Melierax 2 years ago

This kind of face doesn't need colour for me... a black and white would have been great too...

Lars D. Terkelsen Well, I sort of regret that I did not do the BW version. It feels a bit like a bummer to get it published here, only to be told that it basicly sucks, haha.

Mihnea Turcu 2 years ago

Lars, for me, the portrait would have been just fine without any green added in the eyes! It is a fine capture, with a very nice expression / character! Why would you add this colour to already a so good photo? what for? congratulations!

Lars D. Terkelsen That is a good question. Basicly I just felt it worked. I think she is an "over-the-top" lady, and I felt that a touch of "supernatural" worked with her. She is the kind of woman that would likely have been burnt at the stake had it been a couple of hundred years ago.

Anyway, I do off course have second thoughts about it. I would have been a lot simpler had it been rejected, haha. Now I am quite curious about the people who voted for it, - what do they see?

Andrea Orioli 2 years ago

Strong portrait! I admit I have some doubts about the eyes.. green is fine as it matches the overall of the portrait, but the glossy emerald color is maybe overdone and too far from a natural capture. I believe the portrait could be much better with some desaturation at that level...anyway.. it's your picture and an amazing capture!

Andrea

Robert 2 years ago

This portrait is impressive! It has a great impact! It is photographed well! So far so good! With your processing you work out her striking features! Editing or not is not a question in it self but when it fits the all over mood than it is OK. Even i do not believe this green eyes causes that her eye white is also green it is a good picture!
All others is just a matter of taste!
I by my self do not prefer such heavy editing for portrait!

Robert

Lars D. Terkelsen On a technical note, I did not touch the white of her eyes. I suppose it is the general whitebalance that is towards green that makes you see that.

On a general note, for me this shot does not represent what this lady looked like in that moment. It represents my *impression* of what she looked like.

Robert This is what i thought Lars!

Judy W 2 years ago

WOW - that is an incredible candid. Her eyes!!