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Archive 2016 · dancer in the studio

friscoron
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · dancer in the studio

I was supposed to open my studio on Feb 1 and this professional dancer with a company in Iowa has been patiently waiting since September to do audition shoot with me, along with some artistic shots that you'll see here. When my opening was delayed a month due to my landlord's permit snafu, I set it up with this dancer to meet me in a Ballet Chicago studio in downtown Chicago that I often use.

Not quite what I was hoping to do in my studio, but this still worked out quite nicely, I thought. With the headshots, the lighting is intentional as it's the preferred lighting for dance audition photos.

The audition position shots had been four Einstein lights, two on the dancer, two on the background. With these more artistic shots, I used two lights coming from the sides, both with rectangular softboxes. I had been using my 60-inch octagon but the light wraps around too much for shots like these where I actually do want the shadows.

They wanted a white background for the audition shots. If we had been in my studio, we could have easily changed to a black background for these artistic shots and it would have been much better, I think, much more dramatic. But these worked out fairly well. Two of the artistic shots don't have the brighter, cleaner white BG as I turned the lights off for those. I wanted some texture in the BG for those shots.

Comments welcome.

1.
http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1668/24534008549_420e01976a_b.jpg

2.
http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1603/24274732873_7865328a5f_b.jpg

3.
http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1469/24808251611_1e8c49b917_b.jpg

4.
http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1571/24783707522_728c1a16af_b.jpg

5.
http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1472/24274732723_02a6bd9568_b.jpg

Edited on Feb 08, 2016 at 04:19 PM · View previous versions

Feb 08, 2016 at 03:21 PM

pjbuehner
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · dancer in the studio

2 and 3 are great. I love the movement and the pose. Number one doesn't work as well for me only because when I see pointe shoes, I want to see them in that position if that makes sense.
The color head shot is very nice. The only nit is that the BG light is a bit hot and you are losing some detail in the hair on the left side of the photo (either that or you brushed it out in post). The black and white one looks almost like you used software to make her eyes bigger and they are a tad over sharpened in comparison to the rest of the photo...of course your opinion may vary and I could be way off.
Thanks for sharing. Very nice set of photos.
Peter

Feb 08, 2016 at 03:44 PM

dmacmillan
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · dancer in the studio

These are very nice Ron! #3 and #4 are favorites.

Feb 08, 2016 at 03:48 PM

Vcook
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · dancer in the studio

All great stuff, she has large eyes and they're really engaging, 5 really is excellent.

Is it just me or does the UnderArmor logo on the shorts draw anyone else's attention? Maybe clone that off?

Feb 08, 2016 at 04:06 PM

coreybell
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · dancer in the studio

#2 with the textured bg is my choice, it doesn't look as sterile as the others. Great set Ron I am currently checking out your web sites. The logo on the shorts I didn't notice until mentioned, now I can't not notice it, make sense? In both head shots I see a spot on her shirt, her left, our right.

Feb 08, 2016 at 04:53 PM

Jim Rickards
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · dancer in the studio

Nice work. Love the eyes in the last shots.

Feb 08, 2016 at 06:39 PM

macD600
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · dancer in the studio

Vcook wrote:
All great stuff, she has large eyes and they're really engaging, 5 really is excellent.

Is it just me or does the UnderArmor logo on the shorts draw anyone else's attention? Maybe clone that off?
logo? had not noticed. I did notice a stain on the shirt however in the last two. Anyhow.. I really like the use of blue cloth sheet. Beautiful touch and like the way the dancer uses it to complement her own movements. #2 is also my favorite.

Feb 08, 2016 at 07:28 PM

nolaguy
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · dancer in the studio

macD600 wrote:
...and like the way the dancer uses it to complement her own movements.

I would say the photographer and moment of capture accomplished that more so than this lovely, very talented dancer. It's not the gear, it's the you know...

Superb, as ever, Ron. I always appreciate you sharing. I may need to devote a drive to your work alone.

C

Feb 08, 2016 at 07:51 PM

timsporcic
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · dancer in the studio

Great shots. #2 is the best of the bunch. The flow of the tissue really helps frame her and draw the eye in. Nice job!

-Tim

Feb 08, 2016 at 08:53 PM

Mar73
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · dancer in the studio

Great shots! #3 and #5 are my favorites

Feb 08, 2016 at 10:45 PM

Steve Wylie
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · dancer in the studio

Great, as usual, Ron. I have one question, though, relating to the transitional area from backdrop to floor. I almost always have a dark zone back there, which I think is due to the limited space I usually have to work in, preventing me from lighting the backdrop separately. If you wouldn't mind sharing, just how big is this space to work in, how far is the dancer from the backdrop, etc.?

Feb 09, 2016 at 11:33 AM

friscoron
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · dancer in the studio

Steve Wylie wrote:
Great, as usual, Ron. I have one question, though, relating to the transitional area from backdrop to floor. I almost always have a dark zone back there, which I think is due to the limited space I usually have to work in, preventing me from lighting the backdrop separately. If you wouldn't mind sharing, just how big is this space to work in, how far is the dancer from the backdrop, etc.?

Thanks, Steve. While I shot at the Ballet Chicago dance studio, this was all my setup and pretty consistent to what I'll do in my own space. So in front of the backdrop are two five-foot wide (by about 16 feet or 18 feet in length) pieces of marley flooring (black on one side, white on this side). She's just beyond the middle part from me, so about 5 and a half to 6 feet to the backdrop. To be fair, the backdrop had a lot of wrinkles in them so I cleaned up a piece, blurred it a bit, and dropped this in.

If you want, I can show you what the original looks like, largely untouched.

I have a ton of space in this Ballet Chicago studio, which is where I do all their brochure shoots. I've never actually measured it, but I'm probably 40 or 50 feet from the dancer. I'm using my 70-200 and I'm at about 165mm for some of these shots. (85mm lens for the head shots)

In my studio I have about 28 feet going one direction, and 26 going the other. I won't really be able to use my 70-200 for full-body shoots, but definitely will be able to use my 85mm.

Feb 09, 2016 at 12:13 PM

friscoron
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · dancer in the studio

pjbuehner wrote:
2 and 3 are great. I love the movement and the pose. Number one doesn't work as well for me only because when I see pointe shoes, I want to see them in that position if that makes sense.
The color head shot is very nice. The only nit is that the BG light is a bit hot and you are losing some detail in the hair on the left side of the photo (either that or you brushed it out in post). The black and white one looks almost like you used software to make her eyes bigger and they...Show more →

Hi Peter, thanks so much! I get what you're saying about the pointe shoes. As for the color head shot, I'll take another look at it. I honestly try to knock these out as quickly as possible with my editing, and I did clone out stray hairs on the left side. I'll look again to see if I need to clean up a mess, thanks for pointing that out. Her eyes are really amazing. I know a lot of photographers boost the eyes a bit but I rarely do that, and hers just obviously didn't need it. I did sharpen them as I do with all eyes, and while it may come out looking a little over-sharpened in the digital version at this size, it's really meant for a print version and there it looks really good, so I'm okay with that.

Thanks again for your compliments and noting things for me to take another look at.

Ron

Feb 09, 2016 at 12:20 PM

friscoron
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · dancer in the studio

dmacmillan wrote:
These are very nice Ron! #3 and #4 are favorites.

Thanks, Doug! I especially like to hear what the faves are.

Feb 09, 2016 at 12:21 PM

friscoron
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · dancer in the studio

Feb 09, 2016 at 12:22 PM

friscoron
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · dancer in the studio

coreybell wrote:
#2 with the textured bg is my choice, it doesn't look as sterile as the others. Great set Ron I am currently checking out your web sites. The logo on the shorts I didn't notice until mentioned, now I can't not notice it, make sense? In both head shots I see a spot on her shirt, her left, our right.

Thanks, Corey! Really appreciate your mentioning the spot. Definitely will clean that up before delivering. This is why I love posting here before I post on social media or deliver, you guys all do such a great job of catching stuff I miss.

Feb 09, 2016 at 12:30 PM

friscoron
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · dancer in the studio

macD600 wrote:
logo? had not noticed. I did notice a stain on the shirt however in the last two. Anyhow.. I really like the use of blue cloth sheet. Beautiful touch and like the way the dancer uses it to complement her own movements. #2 is also my favorite.

Thanks!

Feb 09, 2016 at 12:31 PM

friscoron
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · dancer in the studio

Jim Rickards wrote:
Nice work. Love the eyes in the last shots.

Thanks, Jim! Thanks for your message, too! Very helpful.

Feb 09, 2016 at 12:31 PM

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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · dancer in the studio

really like #2 and 3...very nice flow with the cloth...on #1 the underarmor logo not a big deal but I noticed the "folds" of cloth extending on both sides above her waist. Very nice (as ususal)

Feb 09, 2016 at 12:34 PM

friscoron
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · dancer in the studio

nolaguy wrote:
I would say the photographer and moment of capture accomplished that more so than this lovely, very talented dancer. It's not the gear, it's the you know...

Superb, as ever, Ron. I always appreciate you sharing. I may need to devote a drive to your work alone.
C

Thanks, Chuck! Yeah, we had another dancer with us so she was throwing the silky material under my direction. They were totally loving working with the material!

Feb 09, 2016 at 12:34 PM

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