I learned to light after years of deconstructing the work of other photographers. And I know from your previous feedback that you guys are fond of these posts, so let’s dig into another one.
How did I make this picture?
Is it a lucky snapshot?
Is it lit?
If so, how?
The camera Settings?
The direction?
Post production?
Whatever details you think are needed to make this image.
Looking forward to you trying to pick this apart… I’ll reveal everything in a followup post. The person who gets the closest gets… …a chest bump and a pizza, or signed book or something. Don’t be shy. Let er rip.
being a dancer myself, I love the grace and ease of this.
It is not a lucky shot, although I’ve seen dance photographers catch dancers in midair, but her body and face are too relaxed all around to be jumping like this.
I don’t think this shot needed a lot of equipment…..but did have an elevated plexiglass table. 2 lights from below, stronger one angled towards belly, the other towards the standing leg. camera from below, photographer lying on back under table. dancer on point with back leg bent in the “attitude” position
There was an awesome camera used, I can’t even start to guess which. 50mm f8 1/125
Probably not a lot of post in Lightroom, basic black and white adjustments. Maybe a bit photoshop to increase raised leg highlight.
:)))
I think you shot this from below, under your plexiglass rig, shutter around 1/200 or 1/250th, f9, maybe 35mm. I’m inclined to say there is a little post beyond the B&W, to draw out contrasts and maybe sharpen, but the background being darkened off probably happened in camera.
There are two lights, either side of the ballerina, but they are not parallel and not at the same height. The light to the left is above the dancer and slightly in front, or maybe parallel. The one to the right is below and slightly behind.
Great image. Thanks for the challenge.
I would say, by looking at her right leg, it looks like she is standing on some sort of glass/plexiglass. You are beneath the glass shooting up while she is bending down towards you. So no not a lucky shot 😉 She IS lit: you have 2 lights: to her left and to her right, creating beautiful rembrant lighting. The light looks like it could be strobes, and if so your shutter is at 1/125, f/11-f/16? ISO no higher than 400. Softboxes on both lights. Little to NO post-production, maybe just smoothing her legs, but the light looks beautiful so you might not have had to do much! Am I close at all?? GREAT JOB!!
Photo was made in a controlled environment, so probably a dark studio with very little ambient light. You could have used a trampoline to get the dancer up in the air, but I’m not too convinced of that
This is definitely NOT a Lucky Snapshot.
Light to camera left is probably a ten o’clock position from above angled down at about 45 degrees. My guess is that you are probably only using barndoors as a modifier to prevent spill to your background and flair in your lens.
Light to camera right is more than likely positioned somewhere between two to three o’clock position from below. I am going to go with Barndoors for this one as well.
It looks like both lights are at the same power ratio.
With a dark studio, the flash will freeze the motion, so you are shooting at Sync speed of your camera. The image is sharp front to back so somewhere around f8 to f11. It looks like there is some compression going on so you look to be shooting a telephoto lens and I am guessing that you are shooting up at her with your camera in a portrait orientation. I would also say you are probably at the seven o’clock position an are angled slightly so that you get the space between her head and back leg.
Post is probably minimal. If it was a digital, then desaturate and bump the contrast a touch. Possibly a slight dodge of the shadows on the legs, but just a touch where there may have been a little light spill.
Details needed to make image. Really good ballerina, decent sized studio space front to back so that the dancer has room to jump towards the camera and capture her full frame with a telephoto lens as well as keep your lights away from your background. Strobes with a short duration are also helpful to not get any motion blur. You probably also have her do one or two practice jumps so that you can determine where your lights need to be and what the peak moment is.
Oops… Meant burn of shadow area…
probably just CGI.
or you eliminated the ambient light and shot for just your strobes that appear to be 130* camera left and above with possibly a bounce 90* camera right.
if thats a case you shout at 1/200th and closed down to f/22.