girl in white dress by Marjolein Martinot

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This is one of the better PotW entries in recent memory. I like the composition, the shallow focus, and the B&W textures and tones. The girl, looking down and walking with her arms out, seems to be off in her own world of imagination. Good work!

I like the original version, lighting wise it work for me and also the b/w tone which drive me to the old days photography, the little girl is also set perfectly in this image, specially with her moves, so much of energy here which promote further the appearance of this POW.
All of the best.

the ground is sloped, and the angel is balancing herself, like the trees must; her hair is highlighted like the trees, touched by sunlight with hers, dancing with her, swaying with her, playfully balancing with her, all luminious with her, and she with all.... this picture reminds us of how we should strive to feel, child or adult, to be free and focused, and balancing to belong in our surroundings; the angel is balancing, like you do with such stunning perspicacity in every of your photographs... this picture is magic; you are magic, Marjolein... no photographer, famous or amateur, moves me, fascinates me, satisfies me like you do, Mar. i admire the elves for choosing a photograph that is about balancing; the balancing which so well metaphorically represents the soul of your art, which is to gaze studiously and channeling through the chaos of life to give us the gift of a moment's harmonious lucidity. to your magic hat, magic Marjolein ;-} donna

She is so absorbed in her play, so fully engrossed as if walking on an imaginary tightrope stretched on the ground, fully concentrating in this effort as seen in the expression on her face.... she embodies the expression that "play is the work of children" attributed to many people, including Friedrich Froebel (who gave us the idea of Kindergarten in the early 1800s) and, in modern times, Bob Keeshan ("Captain Kangaroo"). The B&W rendering is most appropriate for this scene and this idea, and the moment is precise.

Following Marjolein's work for quite sometime, I think it is well deserved POTW. About this photo, I liked it a lot , as it has a wonderful childhood atmospher.
A note to Marjolein: I'm sorry I did not follow your answer then, and uploading my version sent to your email. To answer your question, I realy don't remember what I did when I worked on it, but looking at it now it looks too dark and her dress is not white. I went to look for this photo on my files, (which I remembered keeping it)it looks darker than your original but the dress ( on my screen) is whiter.
I will upload it again, just to say as I did before that the overexposed parts has details in them that can be worked on.
My congratulation Marjolein, Well deserved!

The "overexposed" parts are exposed expressively. In this case, the full details were not as important as the hot feel of searing light. There are enough details to suggest texture, which is all that the photograph seems to me to want. The processing is part of what takes this shot out of the ordinary and makes it so personal. It goes with the skew and the delightful dance of the girl.

Pnina, if your concern is details, why were you willing to lose all the detail in the now muddied shadow area of the bushes in the top right and the very top left corner? Marjolein's version nicely rendered the details in that shadow, yet yours has created a graphic black hole up there.

Losing the energy of Marjolein's highlight processing makes this a much more typical approach to what is a very special scene, deserving of the more energetic approach Marjolein took here. Even your second attempt, Pnina, though not as bad as the first, still makes her dress and hair look dirty and brings the mood level way down from the much more ephemeral original vision.

The slight exposure problem of blown highlights in the dress are negligible here, and I think, take a backseat to the power of the subject and the conveyance of mood. I didn't really notice the technical glitch until it was spoken of. Its not glaring. Its one of those cases where the scene and the moment over powers technique. Congratulations on pow Marjolein,and on a lovely portfolio too.

Congrats, Marge!

As far as the image, I think it is the technical flaws of the image that give it the nostalgic feel of authenticity, like a photography of our grandmother in 1909. Correcting those flaws, oddly enough, reduces this image almost to a cliche, a postcard, if you will. Sometimes, more isn't necessarily, well, more.