Dance move

[armando_m]

2/3 sec exposure in the studio

I was shooting this girl, doing the usual look pretty shots ... until she mentioned:

- I dance with a group, we do flash mobs
-  really? what kind of dance, can you do a few moves?
- yes but not on high heels
- it doesn't matter a nice dance move beats high heels every time ...

She went away, got rid of the pretty clothes, put on her ballet shoes (quite worn) and I tried a longish exposure to try to capture some blur , she was a good sport, as it took me a few tries to figure out the time, flash intensity, etc with some PP I was able to get a bit of what I wanted, a dark background would have been ideal, but was not available

[Jakov Minić]

Armando, this is a great idea! Capturing movement in the studio of a dancer and you made it!
I would have, however, liked to see more light on her face and less light on her back

[Airy]

No problem for me. Her back is expressive, and the face in the shadow adds some mystery. Very well done.

[Fons Baerken]

Wonder what a b/w version may look like.

[armando_m]

Wonder what a b/w version may look like.

Thank you Fons, like this ...


 

No problem for me. Her back is expressive, and the face in the shadow adds some mystery. Very well done.

Armando, this is a great idea! Capturing movement in the studio of a dancer and you made it!
I would have, however, liked to see more light on her face and less light on her back

Thanks Airy, Jakov,
I tried getting a shot of her face, I was using a rear flash sync, on the few times I tried the exposure end did not coincide with the her spinning facing more towards the camera, maybe it would be a good shot ...

[Airy]

Even after having witnessed a choreography three times, I mostly miss the "instant décisif". All the more if the ballerina is just warming up. Best way is to shoot without holding back, and do some real culling. Here and then you get nice surprizes, as in your shot.

[Fons Baerken]

more transparancy more lighter touche in the b/w

[Bruno Schroder]

Good stuff Armando!

[armando_m]

Here is one with her face clearly lit

[Jakov Minić]

Armando, I feel it's miles better

[Anirban Halder]

The last one is remarkable, Armando. I like it lot more than the original one.

[afx]

Yes, the second is lots better, though I wonder whether the darkness of the first one applied to the second image would make it a bit more mysterious.

cheers
afx

[Airy]

... and your last word (mysterious) is precisely what makes me prefer the first shot. Less "perfect" for sure. Generally, in the "classical ballet school of thought", whatever is not perfect is not even supposed to exist, so such shots would not just be disregarded but, worse, rejected. It applies to pictures, no real harm done then, and even to persons, more precisely their bodies, which may be harmful. So when you find somebody who impersonates the joy of dancing rather than the joy of posing, all the better. This seems to be the case here. And the simple fact that the pics illustrate movement rather than poses is a breach of the codes. Just look into a ballet magazine: you won't find these.

[Jan Anne]

To me there's a 20 year age different between the shots.

In the first the image the left calf is sticking out at the back of the right upper leg making the leg look weird and thicker than it is. Besides that the skin on her right buttock doesn't look very nice and the pose makes her waist look bigger than it is and her breasts smaller than they are. All in all I would say 50 years old.

In the second image I see a slim and good looking 30 year old

[armando_m]

Thank you very much for all the comments

Interesting discussion