One of my favorite shots from my photo-shoot with the extraordinary ballerina Svetlana Bednenko who is a Soloist with the Mikhailovsky Ballet. I had the pleasure of working with her while Mikhailovsky Ballet was touring the United States in November of 2014.
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Place: 1 out of 218 Avg (all users): 7.4355 Avg (commenters): 9.0000 Avg (participants): 7.3426 Avg (non-participants): 8.0625 Views since voting: 4205 Views during voting: 284 Votes: 124 Comments: 29 Favorites: 7 (view)
The pose of the dancer, the composition and lighting are fantastically done. Nice to see you back in the spotlight Allen! Congratulations on your blue!
Congrats on the blue Allen and thanks for the detailed lighting description!
I just noticed the two vague shadows from her legs - did you worry about that or did you leave it intentionally?
They are caused by the stripbanks that are behind her at around 45-degree angle. I never remove them, because if you do, the model will look like she is floating in the air and has no contact with the floor.
Congrats on the blue Allen and thanks for the detailed lighting description!
I just noticed the two vague shadows from her legs - did you worry about that or did you leave it intentionally?
what was the lighting for this allen, beautiful capture. stunning in fact
Hi Giles, I used 6 lights for this 2 of which are stacked up on top of 2 other in order to create 2 super tall but narrow lights for edge lighting. I have noticed that this way it works so much better when trying to capture dancers from head to toe. Basically the 4 lights (2 on each side) are covering her all the way from head to toe uniformly, but I have grids on them so that they don't spill too much on the background and the floor. Then there is one with a round grid for the background (hitting it from upper right) and 1 giant softbox to light her front (hitting her from upper left) but that one is set to low power. Having the last light is not necessary, but it is easier to darken her side facing the camera later if you want than not having the last light but decide to brighten it which will introduce some noise ... again the last light is nothing more than a fill. The reason you see her face and forehead lit even in the position that she is in is in fact from the tall stacked up lights that I have created which start all the way from the floor to the ceiling.
This is a terrific photo! Not only is the dancer in an impossible position, but the lighting and composition of the photo are perfect! I hope this one is available for purchase... I would buy this in a heartbeat. My favorite of the Challenge too - a 10 from me!
Quite amazing all around. Worthy of an inspirational poster. Flawless. I can't see how this could get anything less that a 10 for being so clean and perfect.
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