It was a really hot and humid day yesterday! Typical July 4th for the DC area. I spent the day with some family but did not take a break from making some photos. Hope everyone enjoyed a good day off!
While on a walk out in the country, this beautiful yellow bird contrasted nice against the blue sky. Sometimes these elements come together easy for a photo! On this occasion, there was a complimentary color subject compared to the background. Additionally, there were no distracting elements with a cloudless sky. It can be that simple.
Coming back inside, I spent some time with some furry friends. Late in the afternoon, the strong setting sunlight made for dramatic lighting. When you pose a subject in strong sun, the background will fall of dramatically. As can be seen in this photo, the strong sunlight creates strong shadows on a face. This is similar to a bare flash head. For a dog’s face, this makes for a nice portrait. Always reward your pet portrait subjects with a belly rub!
Lens flare is a common artifact of photography. When a source of light shines directly into the lens, you are likely going to have a flare of some kind. There are lots of glass elements in a lens. If there is a strong light source going through the lens, there will be reflections between these pieces of glass which create a lens flare. Here is an example when pointing the lens directly towards the sun:
There are little round circles of light going diagonal from the sun in the frame. With better constructed lenses, these flares can be minimized to not interfere too much with your photo. Recently, lens flares have been made a stylistic choice in lifestyle photography. Lens flares can be used in beach scenes, or other sunny settings to emphasize the youthful energy that the photographer is trying to convey. There are lots of apps for your smartphone that all you to add lens flares to your photos if you do not shoot them with the camera at the time! Movies too have used lens flares, and they became a recognizable element in the J.J. Abrams reboot of the “Star Trek” series. You only have to see the trailer to see that he loves to use the lens flares when in space.
Working With Lens Flare
For my photography, I am starting to embrace lens flares in some situations. My ballroom dance photography is flat light for the most part. There is a large floor to cover, and bouncing the light off the ceiling is easier for the audience and dancers from being distracted from the flash. When it comes to the special showcases from professionals, I want to change how they are lit since it is a shorter time period, and I no longer have to share my flash with other photographers. For this show by the Tysons Corner studio, I have an example of where I had a backlight flash directly into the camera for one photo, then quickly turned off the flash for another shot.
I knew where the light was positioned, and if I took one shot, there would be a chance that the directly line of light into the camera may ruin the shot. So I turned off that flash, and took another. Luckily both of them came out! One has a strong back light flash to add another element to the composition, the other more conventional photo. Both are usable depending on what you are looking to display. You don’t want to over use them! By the way, I love the new Star Trek movies.
I was looking through the photos from another Arthur Murray Showcase to post on the blog today. This one was a show that you really need to be on your game! These dancers were from the Columbia, Maryland studio. They performed a Cha Cha show to a remix of “2 Legit 2 Quit”. Nothing really fancy in shooting this. Just keep the focus on the dancers, and quickly fire the shutter if you can see one or both of their faces.
This was not an easy task as these two have some of the quickest moves! Overall, I had to work to capture these two in camera. Their quickness, and sharp moves were really exciting for the crowd to watch,. I was able to get a few of them on the sensor. To see the photos from this show and all the others from the Showcase, you can go to the proofing website:
Having a combination of colors is important to dancers when coordinating their shows. At this time, these two really tied in a theme to the music – Michael Jackson’s ‘Black or White’. They captured the energy, and sharp dancing that you have in your mind’s eye when you hear a Michael Jackson track!
