Street dancing....caught the spirit

black mamba

El Gato

Music moves the soul....and apparently the feet.

Lovely shot...and of courses kudos for presenting it in B&W.

Always tough to go B&W but you came away with a good image here. Some of the real dark areas may need to be lightened a bit and the bright "hot" whites darkened a tweak. Possibly stepping a few feet to your right and taking the shot from that angle may have removed or reduced the dominance of the dark post in the image's foreground.

Overall a good image, taken in challenging light.

black mamba

@El Gato said:
Music moves the soul....and apparently the feet.

Lovely shot...and of courses kudos for presenting it in B&W.

Always tough to go B&W but you came away with a good image here. Some of the real dark areas may need to be lightened a bit and the bright "hot" whites darkened a tweak. Possibly stepping a few feet to your right and taking the shot from that angle may have removed or reduced the dominance of the dark post in the image's foreground.

Overall a good image, taken in challenging light.

I really appreciate your feedback on this image. That dark post was a real problem for me. If I tried to shift position in either direction, it brought into play some major distractions in background stuff. If I tried to lighten it, the bright areas got worse. Honestly, I don't know how to selectively brighten those major dark areas without sending the bright areas through the roof. And the opposite is true for trying to tone down the massive white areas. I wish I had the skills to accomplish what you suggest.

El Gato

Tom...

Working in the light conditions that I believe you had by looking at the image...the shot is difficult at any level.

If the situation presents itself again, I would suggest considering shooting the image as a high dynamic range (HDR) composition. Taking a range of bracketed photos — that is, photos of the same subject taken with varying shutter speed combinations.

Depending on your kit, and features, you can set both the number of images to be included in the HDR set as well and the decremental (or incremental) "steps" of exposure for each image in the set.

Combining multiple exposures of the same subject matter at different exposure levels may assist in producing the final image your after.

It takes a little practice but, the outcome is interesting. The Internet is full of very good, short to-the-point tutorials on HDR photography. The best part, you don't need to buy any extra equipment. Most cameras provide all of the "technical" requirements to shoot HDR right out of the box...(a) an ability to bracket images (set the number of images you want to take typically 3, 5, or 9) and (b ) set the exposure range (i.e. +0.5, +1.0, +1.5, +2.0) for each image in the set.

One pitfall to avoid ...is in the post-processing phase, using the HDR post-processing software, is over baking the HDR "affect" and producing a surreal, fake, and oversaturated HDR picture. Unless of course that rendering/effect is what you are looking to achieve.

Also, HDR is best applied to landscape or architectural images, where there is no "subject movement" as any movement in the image scene will result in "ghosts" (i.e., movement) in the individual images of the HDR "set". However, there is always a however, many of the HDR processing software tools have the capability of removing these ghost images (as long as they are not too extreme).

Thanks again Tom for posting the image.

Juano

Hi TOm,

I agree with Gatos' comments . It seems to bright on the whites and too dark on the shadows, it looks like it was a very bright day, though conditions. I would consider a crop dropping the keyboard gut, but keeping the fountains, this would draw more attention to the dancing couple.

spanky117ab

Great shot of a tough lighting situation Tom, I always like to see folks having a good time and being themselves.

black mamba

@El Gato said:
Music moves the soul....and apparently the feet.

Lovely shot...and of courses kudos for presenting it in B&W.

Always tough to go B&W but you came away with a good image here. Some of the real dark areas may need to be lightened a bit and the bright "hot" whites darkened a tweak. Possibly stepping a few feet to your right and taking the shot from that angle may have removed or reduced the dominance of the dark post in the image's foreground.

Overall a good image, taken in challenging light.

@Juano said:
Hi TOm,

I agree with Gatos' comments . It seems to bright on the whites and too dark on the shadows, it looks like it was a very bright day, though conditions. I would consider a crop dropping the keyboard gut, but keeping the fountains, this would draw more attention to the dancing couple.

@spanky117ab said:
Great shot of a tough lighting situation Tom, I always like to see folks having a good time and being themselve

I truly appreciate the input from Al, Cristobal, and Mike for their comments as seen above. I've reworked the image based on their suggestions and it is much improved. It's great to have friends that care enough to help when they can.

Juano

Nice rework Tom!

black mamba

@Juano said:
Nice rework Tom!

Thanks, Cristóbal.

El Gato

Very nice Tom...love the "new look!"

black mamba

@El Gato said:
Very nice Tom...love the "new look!"

Thanks, Al. Working with B&W when there are such dramatic differences between light and dark areas certainly can be challenging. Something has to give and working out that ratio is tricky sometimes. Messing with this one will help me in the future. Thanks for your input.

redleash

I had the same thought about cropping out the keyboardist. I liked the Charlie Brown sign but the reworked image is much stronger. Nicely done, Tom!