Farewell

[gho]

A child pays her last respect to her grandfather:

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Comments? Does the color extraction look okay?

 

[Harry S.]

What a moving pic! I don't know what to say.

The color extraction looks quite o.k., but somehow it looks like the kid had been copied into the pic. Feathering the edges a bit might help.
Also, you should paint back the color to the feet of the kid.

Otherwise, a priceless image.
Cheers

 

[Leigh]

looks good gregory. a very touching picture. if the loss was to your family, my condolences.

 

[gho]

What a moving pic! I don't know what to say.

The color extraction looks quite o.k., but somehow it looks like the kid had been copied into the pic. Feathering the edges a bit might help.
Also, you should paint back the color to the feet of the kid.

Otherwise, a priceless image.
Cheers

Wow, I totally missed the feet. Good observation. I'll work on it.

 

[gho]

looks good gregory. a very touching picture. if the loss was to your family, my condolences.

Thank you. Yes, the deceased is my father-in-law, and the little girl is my grand-niece. I'll pass on your condolences to my wife too.

 

[GaryW]

Yes, this is touching!

I don't know, but I am wondering if the grave of the grandfather should also be colored back in. This is an exchange from the granddaughter to the grandfather, but the grandfather's grave (the only thing we have of him) is left b&w and unimportant.

I may be totally wrong. I would know if I saw it the other way. Just a thought.

Gary

 

[TOLady]

My sympathies to you and your family.

I think I'd like to see the colour toned down to about 75% - softens it against the light B&W background, and yes colour in the feet might help *LOL* All in all, very touching photograph and treatment.

 

[gho]

Yes, this is touching!

I don't know, but I am wondering if the grave of the grandfather should also be colored back in. This is an exchange from the granddaughter to the grandfather, but the grandfather's grave (the only thing we have of him) is left b&w and unimportant.

I may be totally wrong. I would know if I saw it the other way. Just a thought.

Gary

I gave it a go, but it stook out too much and took away from the impact, IMHO. I tried increasing the contrast in the B&W portion of the grave. I'm not sure, what do you think? (the original file's been updated).

Actually, she's the great-granddaughter. Her father (next to her) is the deceased's grandson (my nephew).

Also corrected some of the "cut out" look - I think it looks that way because of the sharpening halo, so I erased the halo.

 

[gho]

My sympathies to you and your family.

I think I'd like to see the colour toned down to about 75% - softens it against the light B&W background, and yes colour in the feet might help *LOL* All in all, very touching photograph and treatment.

I was going to go with a semi-desaturated background rather than a full B&W conversion, but it didn't look right.

Interesting idea to desaturate the foreground a bit. I did try it, but I felt it lost much of the effect, and lost the symbolism between the red dot on the head-band and the red of the flower.

BTW, I should mention, in China/Vietnam, it's customary to wear all white to a funeral ceremony.

 

[greyflash]

Wow Gregory what a great tribute this image is to whom I am sure is a great man. His family will treasure this and the little girl will want this as she grows older. Well done my friend.

 

[SRA]

An emotionally warm image, well done.

 

[Commodorefirst]

Very moving and emotional shot,

have you considered, keeping nearly everything in BW, except for the flower and perphaps the headband red? Might make an interesting combiniation, also, if you could, would it be possible to post a BW image only to look at to compare.

Thanks, and a very touching momemtt. You should treasure this photo forever.

 

[nburwell]

An extremely powerful and well composed picture. Excellent job!

 

[gho]

Wow Gregory what a great tribute this image is to whom I am sure is a great man. His family will treasure this and the little girl will want this as she grows older. Well done my friend.

Thank you. The man was my father-in-law, and I was quite close to him. The little girl is my grand-niece. The family asked me to take photos of the ceremony, and since it's family, I did so.

Lesson learned, next time, I'll hire someone to take my place. Taking photos, trying to stay composed (well, well enough to take photos), and watching my kids made this the toughest assignment I've ever done. I wanted so much have my kids be a part of the ceremony.

 

[gho]

An emotionally warm image, well done.

Thank you. I'm glad that it's able to covey the emotion, even for those that don't personally know the individuals in the photo. To me, that's what makes a photograph.

 

[gho]

Very moving and emotional shot,

have you considered, keeping nearly everything in BW, except for the flower and perphaps the headband red? Might make an interesting combiniation, also, if you could, would it be possible to post a BW image only to look at to compare.

Thanks, and a very touching momemtt. You should treasure this photo forever.

I thought about just the flower (without the red dot), but it seemed too detached. I tried the red dot and the flower and also just the B&W. Here's the comparison - let me know which one is your favorite:

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[Gale]

Wow Gregory,
So sorry to hear of the loss of a family member. My best to you and the family.

Very moving image.

I feel sorry for you having to use a camera at a time like this.

 

[gho]

An extremely powerful and well composed picture. Excellent job!

Thank you for your kind words.

 

[Gale]

Gregory,
I believe the color on the COI is the best ...Number 2.

 

[gho]

Wow Gregory,
So sorry to hear of the loss of a family member. My best to you and the family.

Very moving image.

I feel sorry for you having to use a camera at a time like this.

It feels quite strange photographing a funeral, not only since I was emotinally attached to the deceased, but also because it never occured to me that anyone would want photos of such a time.

Also felt quite strange having to move in an out of the prayers and such to get the shots. I just kept telling myself that my father-in-law would have wanted me to do my best. He's an easy going person, and was always asking for my help to hook up stuff, build stuff, and do little projects for him.

It's also quite the change, as a photographer, you'd normally look to carry the joy of an occasion, whereas for this type of thing, it's exactly what you avoid, no smiling faces here (hopefully).

But the 1000 word addage is never more true than with this type of photography. No words can possibly express what the photograph covneys. I'm glad I did do it, but I won't do it again for family.