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.
And your focal length is around 150 mm on the D3.
Er, D3.
Wow, 209 comments already.
This isn’t a lucky snap. You’re shooting at a low ISO and everything is sharp and she’s in motion, so you used strobes. I’m guessing 2 Prophoto or Broncolor heads left and right with “magnum” reflectors. More likely Broncolor as the flash duration is shorter for them. There’s probably some flagging of the background going on. You’re probably using a D1 or Hasselblad, so you’re at about f/16 or f/22 on the D1 or f/22 or f/32 on the Hassy. Ambient is irrelevant at this exposure. You are up higher than I would expect you to be shooting dancers. Maybe chest high. You had her leap at full performance energy and “don’t look at the camera.”
Not much post production other than convert to BandW and sharpening. And local contrast adjustment, the same way you did the portraits for the Seattle 100.
wowwww look at all the tech words…
Uh..? umm… uhhh…ummm…gosh what is it…hmmm…
I shoot streets?
Sorry Cj, no idea. No education on studio lighting.
Just want to say a great entrapment of time.
Thanks and have a good week.
From Montreal, Canada.
Definitely a professional dancer. Two strobe lights set virtually across each other with black background. Main at camera right unmodified, fill at camera left about half stop less. You didn’t want her right arm to get over exposed due to her extension towards fill light. Her instruction was simply to jump between the lights. I bet she can nail this jump 7 out of 10 times. Camera was just below waist level and dancer jumped towards you. 1/250 f10, low ISO. Used a D3s and 24-70 2.8 set close to between 24 to 35mm. Curves adjustment to boost up contrast. That’s it.