Hand Portfolio Pictures

[Gena]

These are for my photo class. I'd love some very very honest feed back. Be mean y'all. Tell me what doesn't work in these. I had a blast taking them and my family is full of incredibly patient people. The images aren't as sharp here as they are in the original form. Facebook degrades quality some.

[darkchild16]

Oh wow!!!

I love the 1st puzzle one and the last one with the shoe.

[Zoom]

I think the puzzle one and the shoe one are my favorites. I think I would like the one of the two old people holding hands more if the hands were the dominant part of the picture and not her face. The way they're holding them up makes it look posed, which takes away from the natural sweetness of two people holding hands.

[Lizmo]

Originally Posted by Gena

Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of this one. Maybe if you put it in b/w it might be better, but the colors of his hand throws off the picture. It's just a hand, it doesn't grap me or stand out. Again, maybe you could mess with the coloring some.

I really love the first and last one!

[Gena]

DC...thank you The puzzle one just draws your eye right in. The shoe one was just ok so I thought I'd play with selective color.

Zoom...you're right...the pose is kind of awkward. Seeing it with eyes that don't love the people in the photos really helps. I love the photo myself, but more for the look on Grandma's face. It may not make the portfolio cut, but I'm going to print it And I had to go look again because I was like "two old people? huh?" I just don't think of my mom (the other hand) as old LOL! Thank you for your comments...they helped!

Lizmo...again, you're right. That picture speaks to *me* because Granddad has always "ruled with an iron fist." He was talking about something and half mad when I snapped that. But as an image to a viewer without that internal backstory, it doesn't work. Thank you for pointing it out and for the compliments

[Beanie]

I actually love that one of your grandpa's hand. It speaks to me too, even before you said who it was of. I don't have to know whose hand it is or have the backstory... the photo tells me. The person it tells ME it is may not be the same person it tells YOU it is, but that's not the point IMHO. We don't have to be thinking of the same person or the same individual, or even the same KIND of individual. It does work for me. Art won't speak to everybody and it also won't speak to everybody the same, but that doesn't make it no good or that it doesn't work. =>
It may be more appealing in black & white, but the colours in his skintone really struck me. I think you'd probably lose the white knuckled intensity in B&W... it's sort of a tough one. But personally, I really do like it.

The contrast in the first one seems a teensy bit off to me, but I like the shot a lot. The composition is very nice.
The second through fifth ones might be more interesting from a different angle, but as it is I'm not really finding anything spectacular in them. I like the balance of the second one - how his shirt in the top right corner is blue and her sleeve in the bottom left is blue - but I really wish you had been shooting from a lower position for that one!
I agree with Zoom about the seventh photo. The first puzzle photo is interesting, but the second puzzle photo strikes me more, perhaps because the shot is tighter. I love it. I'm guessing the first one is three generations? I really like that idea but the second shot is just more visually interesting to me.
The last one is very cute and a lovely shot, but the focus is her shoe rather than the hands or the action of the hands putting on a shoe. I'm not sure if you took the colour out of the shoe as well, if that might help it any.

[Gena]

Beanie...thank you On the fist, black and white just doesn't work for me. It looks dead almost that way. I've cropped and uncropped and played with levels, b/w, sepia and really to me it looks best with the funky color of his hand.

I agree on my angles in some of them. Shooting kids who would rather be running and playing with the leaves means being quick LOL! Her dad is an artist so he was all kinds of patient with me, but she wasn't having it. I will go back in and play with the contrast on the first...I may do a very desaturated version and see what that looks like as well. For the 6 hands puzzle picture, I think I'm going to crop it tighter so only one each of the older hands are in there. I think that will get rid of some of the distractions of Grandma's shirt and such.

Thank you ALL for your suggestions and comments. This was my first day really shooting for the portfolio so not all of these will make the cut...maybe none of them LOL! It really does help to have fresh eyes looking at them.

[Fran101]

I love the one with the shoe <3 its so cute!

[ACooper]

The shoe picture is definitely a keeper!
I also enjoyed the one with little hands accepting the reeses pieces, those tiny, chubby hands waiting patiently for a treat just made me smile
The one with the young and old hand working the puzzle spoke to me on a couple levels.........generations working together, ravages of time, and passing on skills to the next generation. I REALLY like that one.