Dressing room #1

Capture on tri-x in a make shift dressing room for an amuetur troop

of Chinese Opera peformers. This is a scan from film version - I am

still trying to work on wet vs digital formats - wet seems to have

better emotions potential - digital requires a very strange work flow

to come close to what happens when burning and blocking are done in

the wet darkroom sytem.

 

This is a trial piece - am still working on what would be the final -

the eye detail is the keystone for this shot - it is a little visible

in this.

I like the moment captured in this photograph. The only thing I would consider changing is the placement of her face. I think it would have been more dynamic if she was a bit more to the right. Hwer eyes lead to our left but there is nothing there. I like the choices you made in contrast and overall brightness.

I agree with Mark that this would be better if she were placed a bit farther to the right. Also, I'm assuming that the out of focus object on the left is a mirror that she's looking in; maybe get a bit more of that in the frame (if it's on the negative) so we get more of the dressing-room environment. Aside from that, it's a great moment you've captured here with her expression and the hands up at her face.

Same as Mark!

The mirror probably wouldn`t help since is out of focus.

 

Get rid of the messy background - should be easy in PS :-)

 

Hey, how do you process tri-x in a scanner? I would like to try that! ;-)

A penny for my thought anyone?

I agree on the composition notes above. I disagree about the background, though, and would like to see more of it, so I can know it is a dressing room with other people in it. That would make her concentration a counterpoint to the busy surrounds. The taking out of the background with PS dose not work for me, it turns it into a posed shot, something happening in a void, with no context. Also, to me, the mouth is also a center of gravity - vacantly opened, in deep concentration. Plus it establishes a good composition triangle with the eyes.

What a weird expression! She makes me thing of an alien putting on human clothes and learning how to work the face (most likely because of the makeup).

 

I'm not sure about David's black background modification: it isolates her too much. His closer cropping on the right of the image, however, makes her a bit less off-center and allows our gaze to move into her. I'd agree with Mark's recommendation to move her a bit to the right, if it doesn't get any obtrusive elements into the frame from the left.

I love this image.

Thank you all for the comments.

 

This was process normally in Tmax developer. The Tri-X was scanned in via a HP S20 - not the very best of scanners but it gets the job done. The image you see has been balanced for an envirnomental portraiture - some details of her back ground are need to indentify who and where she is. However since this could be potentially messy - this is shot with a 80-200 at I think f4 with me some where a little more than min focusing distance of that lens.

 

The wet trial prints of this suggest that for dramatic effect the darkening of the background is a good direction to go but to make that believeable some creative burning needs to be done to refocus on the eyes. The eyes have details that are not so visible here but when seen they are out of this world - looks really like an alien !! One of the wet have been submitted to an overseas print competition - Pity I do not have a spare (read that as wet dark room's weak point - complex prints --- you want waht 20 copies exactly the same .... faint)I am hopeful for that print though it is not the perfect one that still eludes me.

 

Be a bit busy till towards the end of this month -

getting married so there are a lot of things to do. Duh wedding studio and out door shot was 11 hours when you count time to do make up, a lunch break and travel time in between locations. Just saw the proofs boy am I impressed with the pro - Mr Matthew Tan from the UK MPA (Master Photographers Association) that did them - grin learnt a few things being the subject.

Shots like this aren't really rare, but the accuracy in the timing here is what makes it a really great shot for me, as this truly captures how focussed these people are as they get ready. That's very much what I consider the essence of chinese opera backstage preparations...

The person more to the right and the miror within the frame entirely would indeed make more sense by the book, but not really in this case imo. Simply because we all know the person is looking at the miror anyway, and because the face here really deserves its central position. Burning a bit the brighter areas of the backgroud would be my only suggestion. I love those shots - I hope you have more of them. Regards.

You have had some very good and helpful comments about this image, I think they are very wise and the picture does have lots of potential. It can be a tight cropped portrait or as you have done, a candid portrait. It doesn't matter to me, I like her expression and the placement of her hands. Well done Ellery, it is excellent - Richard.