The Dhobhi's (Washerman) Wife

[ashish]

Mumbai's Dhobhi Ghat (Washermen's valley) is home to more than 6,000 Dhobhis who wash clothes of customers across the city. It's the world's largest laundromat. While the men do the washing, some of the women assist their husbands in packing the washed and ironed clothes and keep them ready for dispatch. This is a very tough job as they sort out the clothes of thousands of customers and make sure they reach their rightful owners. Here is a picture of a lady sitting next to a bale of clothes ready for dispatch.

C&C welcome

[Manfred M]

Ashish - a nicely taken image.

For my taste, you have included too much material that detracts from your subject; the woman in the image. While you need to include enough of a setting to place her in the environment you want to, you should look at excluding any material that detracts from your subject. Doing a B&W can be an important step here, but a tighter crop, either when taking the shot (preferable, in my view) or in post.

For example, if it were my image, I would remove a lot of the material that is higher up in the image, that really does not add to your composition. What I am thinking is along the lines of:

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured, leading lines do provide trail for the eyes to roam around image. This particular capture could serve as an environmental portrait of the Dhobhi's work life, however it could just as easily be misidentified as her living quarters.

[Geoff F]

I agree with the crop idea. Possibly as an alternative to Manfred's version, you could try a 4 x 5 ratio which would give a bit more space at the top.

[ashish]

Ashish - a nicely taken image.

For my taste, you have included too much material that detracts from your subject; the woman in the image. While you need to include enough of a setting to place her in the environment you want to, you should look at excluding any material that detracts from your subject. Doing a B&W can be an important step here, but a tighter crop, either when taking the shot (preferable, in my view) or in post.

For example, if it were my image, I would remove a lot of the material that is higher up in the image, that really does not add to your composition. What I am thinking is along the lines of:

Thanks Manfred... Your point is well taken and your crop certainly puts more emphasis on the lady and the bundle of clothes. I wanted to also depict their living environment and so included the upper part of the frame to show the asbestos wall.

[ashish]

Nicely captured, leading lines do provide trail for the eyes to roam around image. This particular capture could serve as an environmental portrait of the Dhobhi's work life, however it could just as easily be misidentified as her living quarters.

Thanks John.. I agree that the image can be interpreted both ways.

[ashish]

I agree with the crop idea. Possibly as an alternative to Manfred's version, you could try a 4 x 5 ratio which would give a bit more space at the top.

Thanks Geoff.. will try it out.

[Manfred M]

Thanks Manfred... Your point is well taken and your crop certainly puts more emphasis on the lady and the bundle of clothes. I wanted to also depict their living environment and so included the upper part of the frame to show the asbestos wall.

I think the best thing to do is to play around with the image to get what you want. There is a danger of trying to do too much in a single shot though. Any image needs something to draw in and hold the viewer's eyes. A person on bright area (the washing) help to do that. Getting too far back by including too much allows the viewers eyes to start wandering and can result in a less compelling image.

[ashish]

I think the best thing to do is to play around with the image to get what you want. There is a danger of trying to do too much in a single shot though. Any image needs something to draw in and hold the viewer's eyes. A person on bright area (the washing) help to do that. Getting too far back by including too much allows the viewers eyes to start wandering and can result in a less compelling image.

Thanks for your thoughts Manfred.. will keep these points in mind.

[FootLoose]

I think you have a really strong composition in the cropped version, Ashish. If it were mine, I might try adjusting the tones in teh door slightly to separate the edge of the door from the edge of the woman's clothing.

Just an observation in relation to John's comment (#3) and your own response to Manfred (#5): I would have thought the water on the floor indicated that this is a working environment and not a residential environment. Do those people live in that structure?