Is this a portrait??!!

[diablo]

Hello all,

I took a picture of a palm decoration of a friend at an Indian wedding. Was wondering if I can call it a portrait?
Also, I did crop the picture and made it b/w because the background was rather distracting. Please advise how I may further improve the shot and similar shots.



Thanks

Cheers
Diablo

[jiminyClickit]

diablo,

If you want to call it "portrait," the dictionary supports you, sort of; usually the face is included but apparently is not exclusively needed for a painting or photograph to be called a portrait. Certainly these works of art have an identity and character much as a face does, and can express themselves in a similar manner.

It is pleasing to see an entire face, as it would be here, to see all the fingers. You could crop a person's face at the hairline and still have most of their essence; here the symbols and the fingers are part of the "face," and would add to the completeness of photo.

The difference in quality of a shot from 18 inches and one from 24 inches is slight, but at 24 inches the choice of crops is widened greatly. And choices are good things.

[NaturesPixel]

hmm i think it would be better if the finger tips were not cropped off.. to complete the image...
also a little curves/level correction to make it a tad brighter

[wulf]

I agree that it could be called a portrait. I also agree that that the cropping could do with some adjustment and that it looks rather dull at the moment.

As far as stuff that hasn't been explicitly mentioned so far, I would explore rotating the picture to give vertical symmetry (at the moment, the "line" between the hands aims slightly towards the bottom right) and also remember that you can crop to a different aspect ratio - something nearer square would make the hands fill more of the frame, especially if you go back and include the fingers.

Wulf

[photofixation]

I think color version should also be good.

Here is my crop.