ballet pictures

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ballet pictures

smallrewards
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p.1 #1 · ballet pictures

Hey, well, I am unlikely to win, but I have been working hard on some pictures I took at a ballet practice/demo. I have been focusing on two, and looking at different ways to edit them, etc, and yielded the following two pictures, with a few small variations of the same thing. I am giong with the guy for the weekly contest just because, while I like the girl pictures much more, she could just be laying on the floor without moving. No way to tell I captured the moment that only lasted for a second during the routine, whereas the guy is clearly leaping and captured in action....oh well. Also, when i resized the closer crop lost all the fine detail in her eyelashes (visible in the original) and her shirt, etc, so, it looked like garbage at the resized settings.

In addition, I only had my 50mm and 100mm Fdn lenses with me, and I was on the front row like a couple feet from them most of the time, so it was hard enough to get any shots at all as it was.The girl is heavily edited already, several graduated filters to dump the background and make it look like there was a spot light on her. The light was a very very faint blue, had to shoot at f2.0 to keep the shutter speed up at ISO...800 I think? maybe 1600, would have to check. But, they were just in a normal classroom type stage, so I tried to dump the background...big projector in the back and all. Anyway, help out with tips if you can!

Let me know if you have any tips or advice, a real struggle for me to figure out what to do or why.

Jan 09, 2013 at 05:51 AM

RustyBug

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p.1 #2 · ballet pictures

First & last.

The first has an "artist" charm to it with its darker, low detail vibe. The last has strong compositional elements that unmistakably draw you to her. The job you did @ killing the BG along with the spot is quite nice to give negative space to breathe. The spot frames her well, and the left and bottom right circle provide implied leading lines bringing us to her, with the center spot providing a nice separation for her from the floor and the BG.

Two very different type of images ... but I find myself "latched on" to her enjoying the compositional elements more than him, whereas he makes me ponder the "artist intent" @ motion, mood, etc. and I have to study a bit more (lower contrast, etc.) to see the compositional symmetries and juxtapositions at play.

Tough call at which to enter for comp, since you just never know. Of course, the WA isn't about winning (although very nice when you do), as it is about taking the assignment and intentionally challenging yourself for the purpose of personal growth ... which I think you are embracing the spirit of very nicely.

Jan 09, 2013 at 02:21 PM

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p.1 #3 · ballet pictures

thanks so much for your analysis. I felt similarly to you...but my wife convinced me the action was better in the guy. (I also suspect she was not very happy with the time spent and numbers of variations I made of her

understandably.

Jan 10, 2013 at 01:15 AM

friscoron
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p.1 #4 · ballet pictures

I dunno, I've got to go with Rusty. The image of the girl is very compelling. I like the second, wider shot. The one of the guy is cropped too tight, feet and hands cut out, he's not really a motion blur as just an OOF blur. the guy just doesn't work for me, but I love the image of the girl. Nice job!

Jan 15, 2013 at 10:56 PM

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