Beauty Pageant C&C

[cmhbob]

My daughter Erica was invited to participate in the 2014 Miss Teen Tulsa pageant over the weekend. Fist ever pageant; she was mainly interested in the scholarship money. She didn't place in the top 10 in her division, but we're still immensely proud of her for entering.

At any rate, this gave me a chance to shoot under some challenging conditions. No crowding the aisles, so I had to shoot from my seat in the back part of a 250-seat auditorium. The lighting wasn't bad, but wasn't really great, either. Everything was very warm and yellow; I shot on auto white balance. I was zoomed all the way in on my 28-270 Tamron, with the aperture wide open, and ISO at 2500 to let me get the shutter speed fast enough to capture a good still. Since Erica was in the 3rd of 4 relays in the teen division, I had lots of chances to make some test shots, and those settings seemed to give me the best results.

Here's the set on Flickr, and I'm specifically interested in comments on the shot I've posted here. I've tried cropping it, but I'm not super thrilled with any of the crops I've come up with. Plus her skin seems really hot, and I can't seem to fix it. I'm wondering if this image can be saved.


Formal Pose 1 by Raven's Beak, on Flickr

 

[The_Traveler]

Which shot?

 

[Designer]

Definitely crop down to the six young ladies, and clone out the one or two heads that spoil the bottom. As to toning down her arm, somebody with way more skills than I will have to comment.