Ch.73: Dancers

Nikolai

I know I'm entering Rutt's unchallenged territory, but.. man's gotta shoot:-)

Behold: Synchronicity of the Dance:

twinbnj

Wonderful - perfect for the challenge!

Nikolai

Thanks!

twinbnj wrote:

Wonderful - perfect for the challenge!

I must say, the color original was not even remotely appealing.
But a tight crop and some bw treatment helped :-)

ChrisJ

Very nice treatment, Nik. A worthy candidate IMHO.

I see a little bit of "non-black" under the far left leg... doesn't look intentional, should be an easy fix.

Nikolai

Chris,

ChrisJ wrote:

Very nice treatment, Nik. A worthy candidate IMHO.

I see a little bit of "non-black" under the far left leg... doesn't look intentional, should be an easy fix.

Thanks, mate!

Non-black...hmm. I highly doubt any color could survive 100% desaturation Maybe a monitor?

Did you do any fun this weekend?

ChrisJ

Nikolai wrote:

Thanks, mate!

Non-black...hmm. I highly doubt any color could survive 100% desaturation Maybe a monitor?

Did you do any fun this weekend?

It looks like there's a railing visible in the highlighted area... the railing is black, the area around it is slightly less than than black (grey, not color).

95714746-L.jpg

Went to early entry at the zoo today... will have some posts later (probably tomorrow!). Need to work on my RAWflow.

rutt

Really great shot. Very creative crop. Good high contrast B&W. Right on target.

What about losing that frame and title and letting it stand on it's own as a photograph instead of a poster?

BTW: I'm hardly unchallenged. Ballet photography is very competitive. After all, what's human endeavor is more beautiful?

Nikolai

Oh, got it!

ChrisJ wrote:

It looks like there's a railing visible in the highlighted area... the railing is black, the area around it is slightly less than than black (grey, not color).

Thanks a lot!!
Should be fixed now:-)

ChrisJ wrote:

Went to early entry at the zoo today... will have some posts later (probably tomorrow!). Need to work on my RAWflow.

Yeah, me too. I got a bunch from the sunset, they are good, but a lot of work needed...

Nikolai

John,

rutt wrote:

Really great shot. Very creative crop. Good high contrast B&W. Right on target.

Thank you, mastah!

rutt wrote:

What about losing that frame and title and letting it stand on it's own as a photograph instead of a poster?

You mean like this?

Synchronicity of the dance:


I don't know... You think it would have better chances?

rutt wrote:

BTW: I'm hardly unchallenged. Ballet photography is very competitive. After all, what's human endeavor is more beautiful?

In general - yes, but here at dgrin..

Bendr

Actually, Comparing the two, I think I like the one without the border, It seems to have a little more pop, and feels a little more dramatic...

Nice pic btw!

Off-topic: Oh boy new smileys! :ivar

Ben

Nikolai

Bendr,

Bendr wrote:

Actually, Comparing the two, I think I like the one without the border, It seems to have a little more pop, and feels a little more dramatic...

Nice pic btw!
Ben

Thank you for looking and commenting!
I still have some time to decide on which one to use...

Nick Morgan

I think this is, quite frankly, a gorgeous image -- very well done. One thing bothers me, though. For the first few moments of viewing, everything is great: the eyes are guided by the diagonals of the legs and the excellent contrast in the dresses. But then I move up the dancers and find them unfortunately decapitated. Obviously this was your deliberate choice, and I agree that it's creative and even that it works in some way, but I also find it troubling because the dancers are the subject of the photo and it is so customary, when the subject is human, to include the head or face that I find the effect, in the end, unsettling. To analogize to wine, then, the aroma, body, and boquet are fabulous, but the finish and aftertaste are a bit off.

Of course, I might be persuaded otherwise if I saw a version with the heads on.

I also strongly agree that the picture is much better without the frame. I think frames, if used at all, should never draw attention away from the subject, which means they should gently and unobtrusively give the image a base. Too much frame and the big title throw off the design.

Again, beautiful, beautiful photo.

Nikolai

Nick,

Nick Morgan wrote:

I think this is, quite frankly, a gorgeous image -- very well done. One thing bothers me, though. For the first few moments of viewing, everything is great: the eyes are guided by the diagonals of the legs and the excellent contrast in the dresses. But then I move up the dancers and find them unfortunately decapitated. Obviously this was your deliberate choice, and I agree that it's creative and even that it works in some way, but I also find it troubling because the dancers are the subject of the photo and it is so customary, when the subject is human, to include the head or face that I find the effect, in the end, unsettling. To analogize to wine, then, the aroma, body, and boquet are fabulous, but the finish and aftertaste are a bit off.

Of course, I might be persuaded otherwise if I saw a version with the heads on.

I also strongly agree that the picture is much better without the frame. I think frames, if used at all, should never draw attention away from the subject, which means they should gently and unobtrusively give the image a base. Too much frame and the big title throw off the design.

Again, beautiful, beautiful photo.

Thank you very much for your detailed commenting, I do appreciate it a lot.

Heads... Well, if you insist, here's the semi-original photo (trimmed a bit):



Quite a shocking difference, eh?;-)

From how I see it, heads do not add well to the image I was trying to convey...
---
I think you all guys made your point - I'll replace the entry with borderless one.... Thank you very much!

Flyinggina

Wonderful, Nicolai! I love the crop. I prefer the photo without the frame. But I confess that whether or not a photo has a frame does not influence me in the voting.

Virginia

rutt

If it were a dorm room poster contest, then the version with the frame and title wins. But the frame and title don't make it a better photo.

The reason you like them, I think, is that they add weight to the bottom, moving the eye downward and compensating for the decapitations. But people who look closely enough to judge are going to see that anyway.

I think you get more splash by making your image as large as the contest allows and not wasting screen pixels on extraneous stuff. It project confidence in the image to do that.

Nick Morgan

Well, as I suspected, I am now persauded that the beheadings make this a more interesting picture. :jose Thanks for posting the semi-original.

Nikolai

John

rutt wrote:

If it were a dorm room poster contest, then the version with the frame and title wins. But the frame and title don't make it a better photo.

The reason you like them, I think, is that they add weight to the bottom, moving the eye downward and compensating for the decapitations. But people who look closely enough to judge are going to see that anyway.

I think you get more splash by making your image as large as the contest allows and not wasting screen pixels on extraneous stuff. It project confidence in the image to do that.

I think you are correct. You have actually verbalized my gut feeling when I added it - I didn't realized it myself, I just felt I need something extra.:-)

I also agree that dropping the matte makes it bigger and "pop" better.

Once again, I appreciate your friendly and very useful C&C!

Nikolai

Nick,

Nick Morgan wrote:

Well, as I suspected, I am now persauded that the beheadings make this a more interesting picture. :jose Thanks for posting the semi-original.

I'm glad we're one the same wagon.

In fact, it was a "mental" decision for me, since I also don't like cutting off limbs or heads. But in this particular case it just felt right to do it.

Thank you very much for your comments!
If nothing else, I feel much better about my "trimming" decision now.:-)

Nikolai

Virginia,

Flyinggina wrote:

Wonderful, Nicolai! I love the crop. I prefer the photo without the frame. But I confess that whether or not a photo has a frame does not influence me in the voting.

Virginia

Thank you! I guess I made the right choice then by dropping the frame:-)

mbz

It is a very nice picture and great for the subject. I just wonder how the contest works. You won last time, which means you'll be a judge now. Can you include your picture in contest, if you are one of the jdges?

Nikolai

Mbz,

mbz wrote:

It is a very nice picture and great for the subject. I just wonder how the contest works. You won last time, which means you'll be a judge now. Can you include your picture in contest, if you are one of the jdges?

Thank you for your kind words!

As to your question: I honestly don't know.
If push comes to shove, I'd probably ask to be relieved of the jury duty, at least for this session. There are plenty of talented people around who didn't participate in this challenge for whatever reason. I also don't always play, in fact, I probably participated in less than a dozen thus far, so it's a fair chance that I can play the "guest judge" role some time later.

Besides, the last challenge was officially two-way tie (and, in all honesty, I think it was a three-way tie:-), so if Truth (and LiquidAir) decide not to play in this one, Andy will get plenty of help even without me:-).

I think we'll hear from him when it comes to the closing time.

Cheers!

Nikolai

It's official - I'm out...
Just got a confirmation - as a (co-)winner of the previous challenge, I'm not eligible for this one.

Thank you everybody who helped me to build this image!
And I'm truly sorry I wasted your time and efforts on a "non-entry"..

ChrisJ

I'd say the challenge did what it was meant to do... you created a great image, and lots of people provided feedback. Just because it doesn't make the finals (for whatever reason), doesn't mean it's time wasted!

It's still a cool shot.

Nikolai

Thanks, Chris!

ChrisJ wrote:

I'd say the challenge did what it was meant to do... you created a great image, and lots of people provided feedback. Just because it doesn't make the finals (for whatever reason), doesn't mean it's time wasted!

It's still a cool shot.

Appreciate it!

Nikolai

Yay!
As I mentioned earlier, I was not eligible to participate in this contest.

But, guess what: the owners of the dance studio liked the picture and - I MADE SALE!!! :ivar

BeachBill

Nikolai wrote:

the owners of the dance studio liked the picture and - I MADE SALE!!!

That's awesome Nik!

ginger_55

Nikolai wrote:

As I mentioned earlier, I was not eligible to participate in this contest.

But, guess what: the owners of the dance studio liked the picture and - I MADE SALE!!! :ivar

Hey, super cool! I was reading re the framing. I liked your photo a lot and thought it was a strong challenge entry.

I come down to this the post re the sale.........and cool, very cool!!

ginger

Nikolai

Thanks, Bill!

BeachBill wrote:

That's awesome Nik!

I'm excited (can you tell?)

Nikolai

Ginger,

ginger_55 wrote:

Hey, super cool! I was reading re the framing. I liked your photo a lot and thought it was a strong challenge entry.

I come down to this the post re the sale.........and cool, very cool!!

ginger

Thank you, appreciate your attention!

saurora

Hey Nik! I've been off-line so much this week I entirely missed this thread. That shot is AWSOME!!! And........I prefer it cropped and without the border. Too bad you were not eligible to enter, but them's the rules. Congrats on the sale....that's even better! :saurora

Nikolai

Saurora,

saurora wrote:

Hey Nik! I've been off-line so much this week I entirely missed this thread. That shot is AWSOME!!! And........I prefer it cropped and without the border. Too bad you were not eligible to enter, but them's the rules. Congrats on the sale....that's even better! :saurora

Thank you!
I agree, it looks even better w/o the frame..
But they have purchased it "as is", anyways:-)

Xoxo! :-)