Fountain dancers.

MReid · Apr 24, 2012

We finished up a shoot and it was hot outside, the dancers wanted a shot in the fountain.
Midday light 12:00 with a 24mm.
The harsh light kind of works in this shot. There is a bit of a wide angle affect, but it seems to work in this.
Anyway we had a lot of fun getting the shot.

The_Traveler · Apr 24, 2012

Looks great
perhaps a bit bright and too much background intrusion

The_Traveler · Apr 24, 2012

Looks great
perhaps a bit bright and too much background intrusion

View attachment 6976 View attachment 6977

DiskoJoe · Apr 24, 2012

Kind of cool idea. Im with Lew, too much business in the background. Really takes away from them. I would search for other fountains like this and see if you could find a better, more isolated, location. I love there poses. Very graceful body movement. The midday sun doesnt look too bad here.

PapaMatt · Apr 24, 2012

Great idea, and nice shot, however i agree about the background.

lauraxlovegood · Apr 24, 2012

Being a dancer, I love dance shots, however, I do agree with the above comments about the background. It takes away from their beauty... Otherwise, it's a great shot. Really pretty

ReganP · Apr 24, 2012

As another dancer, I agree this is a great action shot. I don't like the background all blurred out, but maybe if you just made the umbrellas less bright and got rid of the Wells Fargo logo it would help.

MReid · Apr 24, 2012

Appreciate everyones comment..
Shot at F4 which at 24mm still gives a very deep depth of field.
I used the wide angle because I wanted to shoot up at them to get them up in the sky and still get them all in focus, I am right below them kneeling in the water.
So there are tradeoffs that were necessary with the depth of field. Had to shoot from close, needed a lot of depth of field to get all the dancers in focus, but not so much that the background would be in sharp focus.

The edits do not look good to me, very fake looking.
No other fountains around like this in isolated areas...this was a spur of the moment "fun" shot.
Yes removing the umbrellas and Wells Fargo sign would help with the distraction. Glad to see the dancers commenting, the dancers in the shot had a great time making the shot.

mommy-medic · Apr 24, 2012

I bet this shot would be a cool night shot! Either using the lights on the fountain (assuming its lit at night) or with some flash.

I like the original over the selectively blurred edits.

MReid · Apr 25, 2012

Yes that is a great idea, I will have to see if the fountain is on at night.
I had planned to take a silhouette (sun at the back shot) of one of the dancers jumping with glowing water coming off all around but I just plain forgot.
Leaving something for next time I guess

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cgipson1 · Apr 25, 2012

Nice.. some lovely dancers! As mentioned... background is mildly distracting.... love it other than that! The foreground is so dynamic, that it isn't a major problem! If you do shoot it at night, maybe some shots with gelled flashes, and a soft filter? Give it sort of a dreamy look?

Trever1t · Apr 25, 2012

I love the shot, it's fun and exciting. The background, well what can you really do about the location? It's not drawing my eyes away from the lead dancer who's body position amazes me. Night shot with controlled fill light would be award winnning!

fenderjaguar · Apr 25, 2012

When I look at this image my eye goes from the guy in the middle then to the girl on the left and finally over to the girl on the right. All the while I don't even notice the background because it's blurred by my peripheral vision. Other than adjusting the overall color I wouldn't worry about the background at all.