Entering the 1000th challenge was a great introduction to the site. Thanks for the comments. This image was taken in 2001 with my first digital camera and I had less than 1.5 M pixels to work with after cropping. I have always found people's hands fascinating when they are doing something they love. My friend would rest his hand in this way when taking a break from reading to discuss something. While photographing something else I noticed the light on his hand and the shadows and took this photograph. Only this last year did I begin to acquire sufficient photoshop skills to take a stab at reducing the glare from the book, a distracting background above the hand, etc. etc. While I have other images that are technically better I find this one more evocative than many of them.
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Awesome capture and presentation. Gorgeous. I originally scored this a 5. What was I thinking. It is much much better than that ... enough drama ... 10!
Interesting idea, and well done, but not very realistic. I can't figure out why his hand would be at this angle. He's not pointing at anything, and not following along the text with his hand while he reads. So the picture starts telling the story, but the story doesn't go anywhere. 7 for well done, would have been 8 if I could come up for a reason why it was this way.
Great shot. The only thing I don't like about it is the chair/arm of the sofa in the background. I think the effect would be much stronger on a simpler, an all-black, or a gradient background.
I love, in particular, that the hand, for all its grace, seems careworn, well-used, not effete in the slightest. The lighting is lovely. I have mixed feelings about the chair back, which I'd have darkened or at least desaturated quite a bit.
I love the softness to the light in this picture, and the position of the hand is restless, like the professor is staring out the window and comtemplating life.
Nice piece of story telling. Then hand is perfectly exposed, but the sheet to the left is distracting (especially where it contrasts with the black background).
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