Critique Please

SimplyEuphoric

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Michigan
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rm-photography.tripod.com
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This is the original photo.



Ok, so I really like this picture of the little girl, her facial expression tells so much, and it leaves you wondering. I really don't know who she is, but I know shes one of my ancestors. I was experimenting and trying to capture this picture without just "taking a picture of a picture."

I like the way it turned out except I don't like how her face is the only thing thats really blurry. I was trying to capture the opposite. It was taking with my digital, which is auto focus, but I took the same picture with my cannon film- so I think I achieved the effect that I was going for with that one.


So for now, I tryed to create the illusion that her face is the only thing thats in focus by blurring the rest of the picture, but that didn't work out too well.

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But other than that detail, what do you like about the picture? What don't you like? What could I have done to make it better?
 
Fantastic picture...the one you're taking a photo of. :D

I like what you're doing, but taking a photo of another photo doesn't fit my taste...I really the expression of the little girl (during the time of the photo anyway).
 
I think it's a natural consequence of the magnifying glass, and there's the original resolution of the photo to take account for, blurring the rest only deteriorates the rest of the photograph...I donno what can you do about that really. Except that it's a nice photo frame with the glass, I'd like to have one, otherwise.

The body of the magnifying glass was nice to add something more geometrical and focus on what you like about the girl, but it didn't help the subject.
 
I encourage you to continue experimenting with this photograph. It seems worthy of the effort. The frame and magnifying glass have strong visual interest and hold the eye. You are right, the girl's expression is compelling. The magnifying glass would make a wonderful spot frame if you can find a way to bring her face into focus. The tone and slightly off-center composition works well.
 
This is a fantastic image!
I too encourage you to take it further.

I have some old family photos like that too. I think I'm now gonna have to do something with them.

This is just a suggestion so take it for what it's worth.
I have a Wacom DVD that has a tutorial for something very similar.

If re-shooting something is an option, re-shoot the photo of only the subject you want inside the loupe then clean it up so it's as sharp as you want it.
Take the original image, and do a luminance selection inside the bezel of the loupe, copy that to a new layer.
The point of this is because you'll delete the current contents of the loupe, and you'll need the luminance selection to layer above the new contents to recreate the highlights and reflections of the glass.

Then select everything inside the bezel in normal mode and delete it.
Now take the cleaned up image of the subject, select the parts of it you want to be inside the loupe, copy it to a new layer between the original image and the layer that contains the luminance selection.
Position the image of the subject into the loupe cleanly so it doesn't extend outside the loupe
Now tweak the luminance selection so that you can see the subject under it as sharply as you want it to be.
You can remove some of the highlight intensity by just painting/erasing it from the luminance selection.
Experiment with blending modes between these 2 layers to get the desired clarity and illumination.

Keep us posted with anything new you do.
This image makes me want to do something with my vintage photos.
 

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