Dance shot needs critique please

[Travis F]

I took this shot under horrible lighting conditions at my daughters' dance recital last June. The front girl's mother wants to buy this shot from me, so I have worked it to the best of my ability. Is there anything else I should do to dress it up a little more?

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y150/LX200/Dance%202006/IMG_55888x10.jpg

Thanks,
Travis

[Radtech1]

First off, WOW!

Great catch!

I would be very proud if it were mine, and I envy you the ability to be able to have such great opportunities. (A non-parent adult male [me] wouldn't get too far if I showed up "wanting to take pictures of the girls". I guess I will have to stick with horses.)

Now, on to the shot:

No problems compositionally, lighting or anything major. I just cleaned it up a bit. Removed non-contributing reflections/debris from the stage. Removed other dancers arms and feet (these three are the subject). Moved the left balloon in away from the border. Moved the green balloon away from the middle dancers face.

The last thing I did, I am still not too sure of, but I tinted the middle dancer a little bit to the magenta. This sets the tone of the one dancer in focus somewhat apart from the other two. I think it helps to keep the attention on her. (Because of stage lighting, I can get away with that in this shot. In any sort of natural light shot it would look wonky to try to use tone to isolate the subject.)

My 2¢

Rad



My fiancé just walked by and said that yours is a great shot, and she also said, "I hope that the mother is paying him a lot for that shot!"

Then she told me, "Don't move the green balloon! That's not where it was! What next, are you going to put a polar bear in with them, too!?!"

[Travis F]

RadTech1,

First of all thanks for the compliments on the shot.

Wow, thanks for taking so much time on the edit. I wanted to remove the "stray" parts also, but I didn't know where to start.

How did move the balloons? I am not very good with PS (I can get some things done, but isolating objects and moving them, I can't do:confused: ) so any help or advice is greatly appreciated!

Thanks again,
Travis

[Radtech1]

RadTech1,

First of all thanks for the compliments on the shot.

Wow, thanks for taking so much time on the edit. I wanted to remove the "stray" parts also, but I didn't know where to start.

How did move the balloons? I am not very good with PS (I can get some things done, but isolating objects and moving them, I can't do:confused: ) so any help or advice is greatly appreciated!

Thanks again,
Travis

I wish I had time to write up a full tutorial, but my day starts at 4:30 am, so it is nearing bedtime.

In a nutshell, I used a sliver of the right hand blue balloon to complete the other one. Likewise, I used the bottom half of blue balloon to complete the green one (with a little help from Hue/Saturation)

The hardest was getting the middle girls face to NOT have a green halo where I erased the green balloon. What I ended up doing was to erase as close as I could, then zoomed in VERY CLOSE (400%, I think) and selected a very narrow sliver where the green blended in with her face. Then using Photo Filter, I added a strong red tint to that sliver, so the green halo was changed to a more human looking tone.

Rad

[sando]

I love it!

It's an ace shot and I hope you get a lotta dough for it!

Well done! :)

edit: Thanks Radtech.. I'm an idiot! :) ;)

[Jettin]

Wow, awsome shot,

Nicely pp'd Radtech.

[T.O.]

You captured a nice moment and you managed light and shutter speed very well. Radtech's edit adds to the composition, good job. It is a very good shot anyway!
regards,
T.O.

[Travis F]

I love it!

It's an ace shot and I hope you get a lotta dough for it!

Well done! :)

edit: Thanks Radtech.. I'm an idiot! :) ;)

Wow, awsome shot,

Nicely pp'd Radtech.

You captured a nice moment and you managed light and shutter speed very well. Radtech's edit adds to the composition, good job. It is a very good shot anyway!
regards,
T.O.

Thanks everyone for the kind words. They are appreciated:D .

Travis

[Travis F]

My fiancé just walked by and said that yours is a great shot, and she also said, "I hope that the mother is paying him a lot for that shot!"


There in lies another problem. The girl's mother is a friend of my wife, so I feel bad charging her too much. I was thinking around $25 for an 8X10, I think that is a pretty fair price. I would like to get more and if she wasn't a friend I would likely ask for more, but as it is, do you think it is a fair price?

Travis

[Radtech1]

Oh, man.

Gotta keep the home fires burning, right? Take the $25.00

Rad