I don't know if you've noticed yet, but expanding a dress in Photoshop has kind of become a must-have portfolio piece for fine art photographers. Well, not so much a "must-have," but definitely an "everyone seems to have." I'm totally cool with this. Robert Cornelius is the biggest sucker for any gloriously rippling, larger than life gown; he just can't help himself. Come on, who doesn't love a GIANT flowing dress!? When you can take a 4 dollar thrift store find and make it look like a huge, impressive, expensive, high fashion ensemble, why wouldn't you? Not to mention it adds lots of interest and production value for no extra cost...unless you have to buy the dress, but you know what I mean.

As an artist there's bound to be times when I'm faced with challenges that I'm not quite used to. For me one of those challenges was shooting outside. It's definitely a lot of fun, and I've been SO pleased with my first several attempts, but for me I guess I'm just spoiled by the studio. The fact that normally I'm shooting tethered, meaning after I snap a picture I can immediately see it on a big computer screen, really makes shooting outdoors quite nerve-racking. When I take a picture in the studio I never have to play the nail-biting guessing game of, "Is this tiny image on the back of my camera actually in focus?" Or the ever present worry of, "Did I get all the pieces I'll need to pull this edit off?" Usually if I miss something or think of a detail to add later, I can go back to the studio and shoot it. However, when photographing on location I kind of have to get what I get, hope for the best, and deal with it in post.

5 Tips For Expanding A Dress

Sometimes You Have To Get Your Feet Wet