Dancer portrait

[Granddad]

Last weekend I had the chore of photographing several belly dancers. This is my favourite shot.
Tips, advice, comments and criticism are welcome (it was one of my first shoots). I've done a basic processing job in lightroom and attempted to give it a pure white background but any tips on how to bring out the best aspects of this one will be appreciated.

Lighting tips also welcome. I used a single flash head (Rembrandt) in a softbox.

 

[Christie Photo]

Where's the belly? When shooting belly dancers, there ought to be belly.

-Pete

 

[Invictus]

Maybe she just has a really short mid-section

 

[Granddad]

Smart-arses! I've got lots of shots with bellies; be nice and I might share a couple.

 

[unnecessary]

its ok.. but that bra she has on really takes away from her ink on her back. Its all clashing together, not to mention its just one ugly bra. Solid black would have been good for this shoot. Clean the photo shop on the edges too, its very obvious. She has some sick Tatts, I would have made that the strong point and really pulled that out in the image

 

[Granddad]

its ok.. but that bra she has on really takes away from her ink on her back. Its all clashing together, not to mention its just one ugly bra. Solid black would have been good for this shoot.

That's not a bra, that's the top half of a belly dance costume.

Clean the photo shop on the edges too, its very obvious. She has some sick Tatts, I would have made that the strong point and really pulled that out in the image

Yeah, you're right, that was a crap photoshop on the edges. The tats are really incidental and weren't what I was concentrating on in the time we had available. If I shoot with this young lady again I'll certainly focus on them, they are quite amazing.

I'll add a different crop of the same photo (with improved edging) that shows the belly and the top of the skirt, you'll see then what I mean about the costume - my fault, I see that it could be interpreted as a really wierd and ugly bra. I still need to work on photoshopping the edging of the hair, there is an instruction video somewhere that I saved on that very subject.

 

[PapaMatt]

its ok.. but that bra she has on really takes away from her ink on her back. Its all clashing together, not to mention its just one ugly bra. Solid black would have been good for this shoot. Clean the photo shop on the edges too, its very obvious. She has some sick Tatts, I would have made that the strong point and really pulled that out in the image

Maybe have her take the bra off?

 

[PapaMatt]

I do like it, nice shot in the 2nd photo

 

[tirediron]

its ok.. but that bra she has on really takes away from her ink on her back. Its all clashing together, not to mention its just one ugly bra. Solid black would have been good for this shoot. Clean the photo shop on the edges too, its very obvious. She has some sick Tatts, I would have made that the strong point and really pulled that out in the image

I think maybe you're missing the point of photographing a belly-dancer!