on the road The Dressmaker

Comments? This is a scan from a glossy print.

Something about a guy lifting a girls dress that always sends my mind back to Junior High. What I like most about this image is that this guy hardly fits my preconeption of a "dressmaker". What also strikes me is this wedding dress, something I typically associate with a pristine setting (you know....the fairytale) being portrayed in a workshop setting. It's showing it's humble beginnings. An interesting series might be the making of the dress, the wedding day, then, after a single wearing, the dress packaged and stored in some dark closet.

Did you print this one yourself? I ask because I wonder if you could've burned that background dress? That whole area really draws my eye away from the star of the show - what wonderful detail and light/shadows you captured there! I agree with Julie that there is a certain humour to this shot that makes it special, too!

Lee, That dress is burned in as much as I could make it without getting that over-burnt grey look. I agree that it is distracting. Perhaps when I finally get a film acanner, I can do something with it. I scanned a glossy 5 X 7 on a cheap flatbed printer.

Everyone seems to be swapping heads these days hey Lee - even the mannequin has been lumped with one that was clearly made for a being of much lesser stature. That's what strikes me most, the work-horse dummy with its wrinkled dress that's so different from the ones we see on the street strutting their stuff and trying to invoke our envy of their clothes and figures. Makes the scene very real, very industrial. I like the gradient in shadow to light from the lower R to upper L.

Good one. Laurie, Lee, and Julie have said it all. Love the idea of dressmaker as a burly man in a well-worn backroom workshop. (The scan could probably be improved a bit with a contrast adjustment, no?)

Chris, thanks. So far, when I increase the contrast, I lose detail in the shadow increase the blown highlights. I will have to scan the neg (XP2) properly to get the full range of luminance adjusted right.

You know, Peter, Lee and I have been talking a lot about digital vs. film. Are you mainly sticking with film? I was saying that Lee gets skin tones in B&W on film that I really need to work for in digital, and even then I'm not sure they're as good. Are you all film or half/half?

What I post in my portfolio leans to digital because of the ease of presentation. But my best work is in tri-x, HP5 and various chromes and most of them will require something like a Nikon Coolscan 500 or better to get the properly nuanced exposure.

 

But I am sure I will use digital more and more as time goes on. I work in the marketing sector and I love the fact that I can take a digital picture and have my designer punch it around and come out with a compelling graphic -- in a few hours.

It should be interesting to see what detail you have on the neg for that bg dress. I certainly understand the preference for digital in product photography (AND in wedding, sigh) - I wonder which you will prefer for your personal work?