I like both of these very much. The first gives an impression of simplicity and effortless confidence. I like the directionality of the key light in the second.
The B&W is spot on. Excellent lighting and control of background. The pose is terrific!
The second one is also well done. I’m sure you join me in wishing the exposure was a millisecond earlier to give a little separation between her left arm and foot. I know that both young ladies were happy with these!
From a purely photography point, it might be better not to have the arm and leg intersect. But for dance, we need that leg up as high as possible, and I'm good with the leg getting up to the arm. So really... if I had my preferences, her arm would have been higher. We shot this a number of times and got quite a few different looks, and this was my favorite look.
I love the first. Amazing how perfectly her hair frames her face while she is moving so swiftly. I think you did a great job presenting the myriad tones in her hair. Before I read gheller's comment I was going to say how I liked the subtle texture in the lower whites which show the presence of the floor (I believe). On the other hand, I do agree with him about the banding in the second. Distracting with the way it is presented here. In the first,I would like to see her lower foot brightened a tad to match the tones of her other foot.
The horizontal line in the first one is the where the backdrop meets the floor. To get rid of it would not make sense, at least to me as the photographer.
As for the banding in the second shot, I tried to get rid of it with a few different tricks, but nothing worked. I left it in to see if anyone would comment on it, and obviously you have. I'm thinking I just need to replace the background period on that one. Thanks for the comments.
Desmolicious wrote:
Dang these are good. With the second one, the arm across the chest and had in front of the foot actually gives it a 3D effect and creates depth.
A question about the banding - is that from the resizing?
The only resizing that happened was downsized to 1024 pixels on the long side once I pulled it from flickr and put it on here. I can see the banding in the original image, but not to the degree you see here. Most of the time, I replace the backdrop but for whatever reason kept it here.
I sometimes struggle with my B&W conversion but I really like how this one turned out.