thought it's time to share one :)

[mmaria]

I took this few years ago with my oly and kit lens.

She is 80 years old woman who experienced the death of her husband and 4 children. At the time I took this photo, her son was dying slowly in horrible cancer pain .
I tried to capture her sorrow and life. Hope I succeeded.

This was actually a very difficult photo to take, because every time I picked my camera up she would froze or move...But at the end, it was worthy...

 

[sm4him]

I'm a sucker for the faces of old people; they tell such incredible stories.

The wb seems a little off to me, but it could just be me.

 

[Granddad]

I think you achieved your goal. However, I agree with sm4him, the WB is a little on the cool side and could stand warming up a few points.
Good work! :thumbup:

 

[tirediron]

What they said! ^^

 

[mmaria]

better now? can't really tell cause my eyes are really tired...

 

[amolitor]

That is a wonderful picture!

If I were to change anything, I would bring the background up a bit. The nearly flat black is a little excessive, I think. Bring out a little more of what's behind her, leaving it "dark" but not "invisible"?

 

[mmaria]

If I were to change anything, I would bring the background up a bit. The nearly flat black is a little excessive, I think. Bring out a little more of what's behind her, leaving it "dark" but not "invisible"?

that would be better I know, but the problem is that I edited this few years ago and saved it as a tiff, flattened! (yes, I'm a fool) and there is no chance to bring something out of the background
I tried but all you can see is noise noise and noise. I could do wb thing with eye dropper on her hair but other than that I doubt it...

 

[Granddad]

Better.
Have you tried a B&W version? I'm not much good at conversions but something about this one says it might work... but go rest your eyes first or try again in the morning after a good night's sleep.

 

[mmaria]

I tried b&w and it doesn't work here as the color version.

Usually, I like strong emotions in b&w but in this case color goes with emotion and adds to it. Look the red tones on her skin and lips f.e they tell some more about her