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This is one of the first photos I took after not seeing my family for four years (don't worry I wasn't in jail).
It is of two generations of my family......
I shot this very close, from above with a very tight crop in mind.
The dark b&w version just seems to work better for me.
Any suggestions...???

Hi Marty. I love the composition but I would really like to see the older woman (mother I presume) in focus rather than slightly out of focus.

To me it implies that the younger (daughter?) is more important than the mother.

Cheers,
Owen.

Hey Owen,
I deliberately took the shot with the mothers face out of focus.
Its part of a series with two faces in each shot, but only the front face is in focus.
I did this to bring your attention to the front person, and make them more dominant in the composition. The other images in the series have different combinations of family members, but always the nearest person in focus.
My plan was....rather than take a portarit with just one person in the image, but to include another person who was 'behind them' in a supportive meaning, not a literal meaning.
Hope that makes sense...!!!
Cheers
Marty

Marty what a shame about the older lady not being in focus. This would have been something very special. The younger woman at the left is perfect in all regards, exposure, composition etc.
Jethro

Marty,

I agree with the other posters about the older woman being OOF, but on the other hand it gives it a different feel.

Alex

Hi Marty
after reading about your intentions for this photo, I think you have captured it quite nicely. I do wonder how it might look with the mother even more OOF, to "really" emphasize the front person.
Did you happen to play around with aperture settings ? Of course, this is only "my personal taste" and is not a critisism....

One other thing I'd try is to make the photo a bit punchier by adding some additional contrast.

In saying all this, the eyes of the younger female are fantastic - a great asset for this photo IMHO

It would be interesting to see a few of these photos together so we can view them as a series, which might put them all into perspective a bit more

G'day,
This is a lovely image, nice composition and the B&W works well... If you're going for the primary/front subject in focus and OOF on the secondary, I'd be tempted to open the aperture more and make the secondary more OOF... Might be tempting to try a softer focus and sharpen just the eyes and lips etc... Just rambling

Works well...

Beautifully tsaken Marty. Very powerful image
cheers
marco

Thanks for more comments.
This is another image from the same idea.
This time the depth of field is a bit wider, so the oof is not so apparent.
I was still trying to emphasise the forward person, but in this image I think girl in the b/g is a bit too dark.
This reduced jpeg is also darker than the original image
Marty

Yes,

this one is great.
You know it puts both ladies into focus.
And a lovely shot it is.
It shows the difference in generations very nicely.
These women photographs show very nicely the change of time and age of these ladies.

Best regards,
CD

Hi Marty
First image is a very powerful portrait. Great idea to soften the second, older woman and you got it right the first time. Second image is very good but lacks the composition and power of number one.

Thanks for all your comments.
I will post more images now we are in a New Year I should have more free time.
Thankfully the end of the year madness is all over (for now anyway)....
Cheers
Marty