Middle School Competition Dance Team C&C...

Dreadnote

So the other day I was asked if I would be willing take pictures of the dance team since I have been doing photos for the other sports teams (is dance a sport?), anyway, I said I'd be happy to since its a great opportunity to practice.

Here is how it went:

I started the morning taking pictures of our soccer field for some pictures I am thinking about doing for the soccer team and had the camera set to auto bracket as I was thinking about doing some HDR stuff. Anyway, forgot that the camera was set to auto bracket and when I was setting up for the dance photos and couldn't for the life of me figure out why my camera kept changing the shutter speed "all by itself". I can only imagine how I'm gonna be when I get older, but I digress...that left me a bit out of sorts and hurried as I wasted a bunch of time figuring out what I had done with the bracketing setting and feeling time pressure as we were already overtime and eating up what was supposed to be first period, all of which resulted in me forgetting to move the rim light where I ought to have on some of the photos. Oh well, some lessons learned the hard way...

So, with all that said, here are a few from the morning. What do you think? Do they work? They are for middle school aged kids 11-13, but would be nice if the parents were impressed as well. I am hoping to be able to deliver something they can be proud of. Also anything you can think of that would improve their quality in any way would be appreciated as sooner or later I'm gonna try to take pictures out in the real world.

Thanks in advance. :bow

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divamum

I think these are excellent! My only nit would be to darken the bg behind in 1 & 3 to get rid of the sign behind her.

If you managed that "spotlight" feeling exclusively with light falloff and camera settings to shut out ambient, then congrats on excellent light control, too!

Dreadnote

divamum wrote: »

I think these are excellent! My only nit would be to darken the bg behind in 1 & 3 to get rid of the sign behind her.

If you managed that "spotlight" feeling exclusively with light falloff and camera settings to shut out ambient, then congrats on excellent light control, too!

Thanks diva. I agree, needs to be darkened. Didn't notice it last night when I posted them. I'll fix that and repost. But that is what is so great about you guys. Thanks.

Dreadnote

OK so I re-posted the pictures in the OP. I think I managed to get rid of all traces of the sign that was in the background (one of the difficulties of shooting in a gym - signs everywhere).

Here are a few more I was working on this weekend:

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So here is the $5.00 question - If you had a friend with a child on a dance team, are these good enough to recommend me to them? (This is of course a hypothetical, since you all would obviously do the shoot yourself ) Or do they still need more work, in or out of camera.

Thanks in advance for your honest opinions.

David_S85

Dreadnote wrote: »

So here is the $5.00 question - If you had a friend with a child on a dance team, are these good enough to recommend me to them? Or do they still need more work, in or out of camera.
Thanks in advance for your honest opinions.

Yes. #'s 1 in the 1st set and #4 in the second are excellent shots.

lilmomma

my daughter is very involved in dance..I don't ever buy the pics because they aren't ever worth the money, because i'm pretty picky and the photos are usually crappy. I would totally buy these in a heartbeat. they are awesome!

Mike J

I would not hesitate selling this work. Very nice job

Sam

Nice lighting. I would however delete #3. I wouldn't want to post any images looking up a dress.

I do like the very different look your lighting setup created.

Sam

Hackbone

Am I correct in assuming that you main was pretty much overhead?

Dreadnote

Hackbone wrote: »

Am I correct in assuming that you main was pretty much overhead?

Correct, I recently acquired a Manfrotto boom stand and arm. This was my first attempt at using it. The main was an SB900 shot through a 43 inch Westcott Umbrella with the girls lined up at the back edge (for the most part, they were a bit here and there as they had to jump and what not) in an attempt to get some light under their chins but keep the downward light direction.

As a side, today the shipment from Buff showed up with an Einstein, 86"PLM, beauty dish and the battery pack thingy the name of which I forget atm. Needless to say I can hardly wait to see what it can do.

Dreadnote

David_S85 wrote: »

Yes. #'s 1 in the 1st set and #4 in the second are excellent shots.

lilmomma wrote: »

my daughter is very involved in dance..I don't ever buy the pics because they aren't ever worth the money, because i'm pretty picky and the photos are usually crappy. I would totally buy these in a heartbeat. they are awesome!

Mike J wrote: »

I would not hesitate selling this work. Very nice job

Sam wrote: »

Nice lighting. I would however delete #3. I wouldn't want to post any images looking up a dress.

I do like the very different look your lighting setup created.

Sam

Thanks a million guys!! The confidence boost really helps. There is so much to learn here, I'm glad I seem to be getting some small part of it down.

Dreadnote

OK so I thought I'd play around with some ideas for a classroom poster for the dance team coach/instructor. Is it ridiculous? I can't decide. My wife said its a bit creepy...

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reyvee61

Great shots, i really like what you did with the last edits

David_S85

The original posted images were good enough that flames and wings are totally unnecessary. Don't like 'em.

Hackbone

Dreadnote wrote: »

Correct, I recently acquired a Manfrotto boom stand and arm. This was my first attempt at using it. The main was an SB900 shot through a 43 inch Westcott Umbrella with the girls lined up at the back edge (for the most part, they were a bit here and there as they had to jump and what not) in an attempt to get some light under their chins but keep the downward light direction.

As a side, today the shipment from Buff showed up with an Einstein, 86"PLM, beauty dish and the battery pack thingy the name of which I forget atm. Needless to say I can hardly wait to see what it can do.

That's what I thought. When the light is that high you tend to get racoon eyes. Also with the light that high you get a big f stop fall off from top to bottom. Hard to evenly light up a subject but great to create a falloff so as not to see the bottom. Dealers choice. The flames and wings do cause the public to say WOW. Good job.

Dreadnote

Thanks for the feedback guys I really appreciate it.

reyvee61 wrote: »

Great shots, i really like what you did with the last edits

David_S85 wrote: »

The original posted images were good enough that flames and wings are totally unnecessary. Don't like 'em.

I tend to agree with you. I'm a bit torn between what I think looks good and the undeniable fact that sales to the parents of these kids is driven by the "mommy please!" factor. But I think I'll try another one without all the nonsense just to compare. One positive downstream to adding wings and fire though (which lets face it, it was just me fooling around contemplating the makeup of our dance team one night while watching tv) came when I asked an opinion of our Drama/Theatre teacher yesterday. She now wants to talk about theatre pics. Thanks for the input.

Hackbone wrote: »

That's what I thought. When the light is that high you tend to get racoon eyes. Also with the light that high you get a big f stop fall off from top to bottom. Hard to evenly light up a subject but great to create a falloff so as not to see the bottom. Dealers choice. The flames and wings do cause the public to say WOW. Good job.

Yeah I kinda had to pick between rim and fill. Unfortunately 2 lights is 2 lights. Could have let the ambient do the fill but then there would have been gym ugly all over the place. The good news is they liked these pics enough to have already asked for pics for next years dance team... and now I have a third light who knows might have 4 or 5 by then. Thanks again for the input.

divamum

David_S85 wrote: »

The original posted images were good enough that flames and wings are totally unnecessary. Don't like 'em.

As a parent, I'd be ALL OVER the "straight" shots (they are really good), and would run a mile from the added-extras ones. Then again, perhaps I'm not the "typical" parent, being both a performer and a photographer, but you know what I mean