The Anthonis Mor gown

[frualeydis]

I still haven't taken the perfect picture, I need another background and different lightning, but here it is:





I need to have the picture nearby too, so I can get the exact pose; now I turn too much to the left (my left).

But now I have no excuse anymore and have to actually include this dress in the costume gallery on my web site, two years after it was made.

Comments

[seamstrix.livejournal.com]

That is faboooo! I love the portrait reporductions, and you've done an excellent one. You really do look alot like the woman in the picture too!

Yay Eva!!!!

[kass-rants.livejournal.com]

Excellent work, Eva. Wow! I'm even more impressed now.

[synapsomatic.livejournal.com]

I love it!! Beautiful, lovely, well done. You will certainly have to share the final photo.

I don't know if you would care about doing this, but have you thought about using a photo enhancing/altering program just to give it that look and feel of something closer to a painting? Like, softening up the lighting of the photo, for example, to reduce the effect of the flash, or other little things like that. Not that it's necessary, just for fun, just for being perfectionist, just for trying to achieve a more artistic and professional look.

[frualeydis.livejournal.com]

I would love to that if I knew how.

/Eva

[synapsomatic.livejournal.com]

Perhaps give a try to Picasa, completely free photo-editing software made and maintained by Google. My partner has used Photoshop for years, and when Picasa came out, he had to try it. He loves it and says it is definitely comparable to Photoshop in the things it can do. It has a "help" feature, like any other product, but usually, the best way to figure things out is just to sit down and start playing with the program, seeing the things it can do and such. Minor editing to photos is pretty easy to figure out. When you have time, you can really play around and see all the crazy things it can do, too. :)

[synapsomatic.livejournal.com]

Just to give you an idea, I took the picture of you and played with it a bit in Photoshop to make it appear more like a painting. ;D It's just a quick job, and with several hours, it could certainly look pretty damn good. Mostly, the process is softening up most of the lines, while retaining the sharpness of only certain details, like eyes, lips, the shape of the nose, the detail in the cap and such. But things like the fine texture of skin have to be blurred out to make them appear smooth like a painting. I even blurred out the sharp texture of the sleeves. The only thing I couldn't figure out--although I can imagine some ways to do it, but it would require probably a couple of hours devoted to working on it, to get it just right--is getting all the shadow that you see in many of the paintings. I played with the lighting, to give the effect of a spotlight, but it ends up, every way I tried, giving too much light on the face. It was either too much or too little, because if I lessened it, then the skin didn't have the right color. But too much and it washes out all of the shadows. In the paintings, however, there is emphasis on the shadows, especially in the face, but it's almost impossible to actually get lighting that creates the effect. So, the shadows would actually have to be "painted in", and that is what would really get time consuming. But anyway. There you go! =)

[frualeydis.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

/Eva

[merastra.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, you look great! Rah for fitting in it again! For some reason you look kind of cuter in your version than I expected from the Mor gown. I think it's your smile. :-)

[liadethornegge.livejournal.com]

Wonderful comparison photo, Eva. The dress is gorgeous, of course. The entire outfit is, and you look pretty.

As for the pose, I think possibly only your head and eyes need to be turned towards the camera.

[sismith42.livejournal.com]

Even just the eyes would do it, I think... the orrigional has her chin turned to the left, too... beautiful work, though!

[frualeydis.livejournal.com]

Yes, you see a little more of her cap and face. My right arm will never be disproportionate enough to look like her bent arm either ;)

/Eva

[amonik.livejournal.com]

You would need gorilla arms to get that angle. I get it, so she probably had an unusually high waist too :-D

[bracke.livejournal.com]

Nice!

[ragnvaeig.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. Beautiful!

[tailordrews.livejournal.com]

That is amazing, i love people like you, who do such things!

Bjarne

[silverstah.livejournal.com]

WOAH! That looks amazing!

[de-ravenne.livejournal.com]

You look exactly like her and the gown is wonderful!

[marccarlson.livejournal.com]

If I may suggest, your flash is too sharp. What you may want to do is to have two light sources: one slightly above and over, and a reflector below and to the model's right (notice the shadows and lighting on the right arm). Preferably natural lighting.

Then turn the flash off, put the camera on a tripod, and stand still (this works a lot better with film than with digital).

[frualeydis.livejournal.com]

If we retake the photo that is the plan. This was taken in the banquet hall just before feast. I also think the background should be dark brown and not blue.
We only have a digital camera and no tripod, but just changing the lighting should do a lot. We took some photos without flash, bt they got too dark.

/Eva