ballroom dancing add yours

[Nomadr]

i had a go at taking pics of ballroom dancers, the lighting was pretty naff, this was taken in the shadows,cheers martyn

[Nomadr]

this pic was taken with more light, still pretty average as far as impact goes, cheers martyn

[Nomadr]

dramatically changed in PS

[Nomadr]

less ps enhanced, just as dramatic but BG sticks out like a sore thumb.cheers martyn

[Nomadr]

panning on a fairly slow shutter speed to isolate the dancers, again the distracting BG gets in the way,

[Nomadr]

went overboard with PS trying to giive it a wow factor, cheers martyn

[Donald]

i had a go at taking pics of ballroom dancers,

If you don't try you don't learn.

You've been willing to go out to the edge and set yourself fresh challenges. And that's great. What you've done is shown the rest of us what can be done and what the challenges are. I assume this is an environment over which you have no control and you have to go with what's there.

The first and last pics are, I think, the best of the group - composition, lighting, lack of interfering background, etc.

[Nomadr]

thanks for your imput Donald, the shots were taken on a dance floor,the lighting was fluorescent strip lights,the only thing i had control of was my camera, these dancers were a pro couple doing a couple of routines,i was trying different techniques to see if anything worked,
i have seen ballroom dancers in mags and most look posed or taken with flash to freeze the action, i wanted to try and get some movement blur rather than pin sharp images,
the main problems were distracting BG,changing light conditions as they danced about,missing limbs as they came in close (was using a 70-200,which was good for zooming in ),heres a typical example shot at 70mm, cheers martyn

[Nomadr]

it was very rare to get both their faces pointing the right way, heres photoshops interpretation of the colours,cheers martyn

[Dave Humphries]

went overboard with PS trying to giive it a wow factor, cheers martyn

Poor girl doesn't have a leg to stand on

#1 - personally I wouldn't have kept, as you say, the lighting is too bad, but as Donald says, it is a lesson to us all, so thanks for posting anyway

#2 - is probably my favourite, it has the best lighting and you've caught the pause moment well for a sharp face

#3 - I quite like, if only the exposure on the guy matched the gal, it shows the caught in a downlighter problem, unless that was your doing in PP

#4 - may have been better with a fraction faster shutter speed on this, and I think some dodging and burning could help with the exposure on the guys face - I would also (call me square) straighten the verticals, especially on this one, but also on #1, #2, #5 and (post) #8 - you don't need an angle to convey anything, the slow shutter speed is doing that.

#5 - there's not enough to hold my interest, yes, there is a nice leading line up to their hands, but they are in front of something else and there's not enough of their faces in shot.

#6 - ok I have just worked out where her legs are; we can see one shoe on left and the other is under her dress, I think a little more space on the left would help the composition (but I don't know if there's anything worse there you were trying to avoid)

#8 - I like this, but you obviously needed a square format camera and a bit of fill light.

#9 - Yep, the colours look more natural here, although somehow the WB of #1 and #2 are more pleasing to the eye (I must go see the optician ) I'm sure that poster/mural represents a lot of hard work by someone or some school, it is a shame it doesn't help the current subject matter, despite the theme.

If presented as a series, you would want to take more care for a consistent WB, but as an enlightening view of the problems for us here at CiC, this has been very informative thread.

As we have seen from other's work, these multi-use village halls/community centres do not make the most attracive of backgrounds Imagine having a studio big enough, and with a controlled lighting, to shoot this as you might your posed ballet shots, wouldn't that be nice

[Nomadr]

thanks for your comments Dave, i had a few problems with my verticals,i was sat at the edge of the dance floor so as not to spoil peoples view,i was tending to shoot upwards, i would liked to have been standing. i am under the same opinion with the colours, i just wished they had used more of the middle of the floor where the lighting was better,
i need to find a nice pic and spend some time reworking it, maybe that might open a few doors for me (ballroom dancing is a very closed community, i was only allowed in due to me being the photographers helper), the only reason i am allowed to shoot burlesque is because i can usually salvage something from nothing, lol, cheers martyn

[Dave Humphries]

~ i had a few problems with my verticals ~

Huh, you should see my appalling horizontals from the weekend

I can't believe I still get that wrong so often, I was embarrassed by my daughter, using my old bridge camera, doing a better job than me

Heat of the moment, eh?

[rpcrowe]

The previous shots are all lovely...

Ballroom dancing - Beijing Style...

[wilgk]

I think you've done very well Martyn - it is very difficult - I have a friend who competes, so I went along once to watch...here are some of my attempts...







I would like to go again and try and improve it is all so colourful and entertaining.

[Nomadr]

richard and kay they are all great, like you said its harder than it looks, i found a lot of the times the dancers had their heads in opposite directions,
latin american would be good,they tend to seperate and swirl (technical term i think ),cheers martyn