Triplets

We are nearly midway through June and I was expecting to be outdoors with a camera. But I’m not as this prolonged spell of cold, grey, wet and sometimes windy weather continues with the occasional brief respite. And so I’m falling back on images taken earlier in the year.

Shop windows fascinate me. Previously I’ve posted about the photographic possibilities offered by window displays in ‘Window Snapping’, and discussed whether Window Dressing is an Art Form in ‘Window Dressing’. A few weeks ago I was walking down Bond Street and finding further items of photographic interest in shop windows, including the image you see below.

This is just a small section from an image of a window display of an upmarket clothes shop. My original attraction was to the image as a whole of three mannequins but when I started to look at this at home, not only was the image difficult to use because of distracting reflections, but I was drawn specifically to the relationships of the three heads. Three heads, seemingly identical, whose clever interplay suggested that they had been positioned as if for a portrait session.

Because this is a small part of the original RAW file, it was inevitably a bit soft and I have deliberately used Photoshop filters to enhance and nuance the image further creating a final image that is slightly soft focus and painterly.

I think this is an improvement on my earlier ‘final’ result (see left), which I felt was just a little too hard overall, hence the softening in the image above. I’ve attached the earlier version for you to compare. I’d love to hear your opinion on which version you prefer. As always both images will enlarge up – just click on an image.