Ballet - Don Quixote

Local group did movements from three ballets last night. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

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that is beautiful!!

Lovely, lovely, although it looks like the chorus got Gaussian blur and/or levels. Did you do something to enhance the jumper?

DwightMcCann wrote in post #3756612
Lovely, lovely, although it looks like the chorus got Gaussian blur and/or levels. Did you do something to enhance the jumper?

Hi Dwight and Grace. Thanks for the compliments.

Dwight, you're correct I blurred the other dancers a bit. I was in the very back of the theatre and the depth of field obviously made the other dancers sharp, just like the main. With them in focus the main dancer gets lost. I struggled a little with how much blurring to do: not enough - too busy; too much - cheezy looking. I may have to change the blur a bit.

CHUCK

It's a great shot. I have never liked fake blur, but that's an artistic decision on your part. I think the light on the leaping dancer is bright enough to separate her. I would probably crop out the partial dancer on the right.

Curtis N wrote in post #3757251
It's a great shot. I have never liked fake blur, but that's an artistic decision on your part. I think the light on the leaping dancer is bright enough to separate her. I would probably crop out the partial dancer on the right.

Thanks Curtis. Looking at it now, I can most likely just keep the four middle background dancers and still have the main somewhat centered. I'll give it a go.

CHUCK

FYI Here's the original.

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Chazs wrote in post #3757565
Looking at it now, I can most likely just keep the four middle background dancers and still have the main somewhat centered. I'll give it a go.

I think either four or six would work. And there's no rule that says the subject has to be centered.

Putting a little more space in front of her gives her a place to land, and most people find this compositional technique appealing.

It really is a nice shot. Ballet is beautiful when you manage to get the timing right.

Does using brightness levels help more than the blurring? I'm not sure. Certainly you'd want a less crude selection than I have managed.

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wow! that's incredible! what equipment and settings did you use?

Thanks all.

Nice idea Alan. Here's a version using several of the suggestions. I'm still undecided what to actually do.

Cricket, I shot this with a Canon 20D and a 70-200L F/4. Settings were 1600ISO, F/4, 1/200s, RAW. In shooting ballet, the exposure meter is always 1.5 to 2 stops "underexposed". The stage is so dark and the costumes so bright that a "correct" exposure would blow the highlights out. In RAW conversion I do a little exposure correction and a little temperature correction (stage lights produce strange colors). And then in photoshop a very little sharpening (VERY little due to the high ISO) and a tiny bit of noise reduction (Noise Ninja). I try to keep the post-processing to a minimum.

CHUCK

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Great timing,I specialize in world class classical ballet and been a pro performing arts photographer for 40 years using 35mm. Just switched to digital canon 30D and know the settings I want,just feel like a fish out of water.Your background detracts from the principle dancer,however great clarity and your timing is right on.I never can use flash and stage lighting is easy to shoot at 125th for a pro ballet to capture any movement, amature companies lighting can be more difficult. Be careful of side lighting, as the dancers move from front to back stage.Also when shooting a large performance like "Swan Lake" with many dancers, it helps to position yourself from above ie. balcony with along lense otherwise dancers overlap more and lose the individual positioning.I have also shot hundreds of concerts and would be glad to discuss them as well.This digital camera is a new animal to me and I'm having difficulty making the transition,thanks for any suggestions.

Don't like the last version.
I'ld rather crop then clone out peeple in the BG.
I think the image needs a bit of straightening, but I think I prefer the crop of the first, minus the rightmost dancer in the BG.