Thanks to all who looked and commented. Flash: yes, Boris, you are right. This is a consious decision: the dance is too fast (the music was probably about 200-250 bpm when that shot was taken), so, 1/80 s or 1/100 s is the longest exposure I can afford without getting motion blur, and f/4.0 or f/4.5 is as wide as I can do while minimizing number of out-of-focus shots (or amount of out-of-focus parts in the frame (again due to the fast movement and rather close distance).
Previously, I've been using Gary Fong cloud lightsphere to soften the light. This time, I decided to go with a naked flash (external Metz). The were two reasons: higher consistency at the larger distances, and the fact that the lightsphere tends to blind people who are behind and next to me (due to the 360 deg. plain-isotropic light). This was a "jam circle", - a spontaneous break out of intense dancing usually done to a faster song, when everybody comes around, forming a rather tight circle (I am at about the same distance from the dancers as they are from the people in the first "row" in the back). - And then better (and brave) dancers jump in, usually one couple at a time, - often for just 64 bits - to show off their talants, so that several couples get to shine within one song. This setting catches you where you managed to stand from the beginning (and the experienced dance-event photographers are usually trying to jump into the front row as soon as they see the motion forming that circle), so, it's hard to change your position. Hence, you just "work" with what happens, trying to get best out of the situation. My wife thinks that there was a better view on that couple at that moment from a different angle, - as she saw it live, - so, she is less impressed with this shot. (Larry, - see, - here is an advantage of not being at the Fest! - You can enjoy this shot more! ;-) ) The thing I mentioned that I consider changing is the tilt. I am thinking if I should rotate it just slightly (CCW). This would make the female dancer mostly vertical, and would accent the back-bending of the guy. Unfortunately, that would cut off some of the audience in the background. What do you think? Igor > Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2011 11:14:22 -0400 (EDT) > From: Igor Roshchin > Subject: PESO - 1 out of ~995 > > > During the weekend I increased the backlog of the photos that need to > be sorted out by almost 1000. > It was Lindyfest in Houston - a large swing (primarily lindy hop) > festival. > > Here just one of the photos that I spotted while dumping the photos from > the cards onto the desktop's HDD. > http://www.komkon.org/~igor/PHOTOS/Mixed-2011/_IR28175.jpg > > There is one thing that I might change about this photo... > .. So your brutal comments and suggestions are welcome. > > Igor > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
