Here are more favorite photos from the Spring Freestyles. I hope everyone is enjoying the Spring weather! It has definitely hit the DC area, and I am out everyday this week so far. Of course I have lots of orders to place, so here is just a quick post on featuring professional Arthur Murray dancers from the Gaithersburg studio. Thanks to everyone that has visited the website and supported our photography through orders. We are so happy that you are enjoying the photos!
In looking through these show photos, I am starting to feel confident in my lighting setup. Overall, the Hilton McLean in Tysons has a large, long ballroom. Especially for Arthur Murray events where they have the entire room. While photographing these shows, I had 4 large flashes setup to light up the floor. The size of the ballroom allows for some of the lights to face right into the camera without adding flare to the photos. The size of the space can been seen in how out of focus the crowd is in these photos! The dancers can still pop out with them staying in focus, and the best light hitting them. Of course, I wish I could get every dancer on the floor in this light. But this only works with only one couple out on the floor. It is another benefit of the ending show from the event!
Here is another album of photos from the Spring Freestyles. Overall it has been a busy week in the studio! I completed the photos from the River City Ballroom Dance Competition. Now they ready to view on the proofing website here:
I am especially hoping that Spring comes to the DC region this weekend! For this reason, I want to take new outdoor photos to share on the blog. It has been in particular a long winter, and warmer weather must be just around the corner. There are a few shoots on the upcoming schedule, but I do have more openings, so please contact if you are thinking about refreshing family photos, or have any events coming up where you would need photo coverage.
Pro Show from Spring Freestyles
Here are more photos from the Arthur Murray Spring Freestyles event. This is another of the professional shows – this time by the Columbia, Maryland studio. The energetic swing was an athletic display, and fun to photograph. Enjoy!
A few posts ago, I posted about depth of field in photography, and how you can use it to make more compelling images. When the aperture of the lens is opened, things in the frame that are not under the focus point will blur. Additionally have blurred background will not be distracting to the viewer. This pops the subject out from the frame and in particular gives a pleasing out-of-focus background for the main subject. Compression is another aspect relating to depth of field. Especially in the Spring Freestyles shoot I noticed that you can put to creative use in your photography.
If you want to experiment with your camera, set your F-stop to the lowest number available on your lens. In this case, this is printed right on your lens. For “kit” lenses that have variable apertures, it will say 1:3.5 – 5.6. On more expensive lenses it will only have one number like 1:2.8 or 1:1.4. The numbers 3.5, 2.8, or 1.4 designate what the largest aperture setting is possible with that lens. On variable aperture lenses, the largest aperture will vary depending on focal length. To put it another way, how far you have zoomed your lens will change the maximum aperture. At the wide, or lower end of the 1:3.5-5.6 lens the maximum aperture is f/3.5, zoomed all the way out, the maximum aperture is f/5.6. This is one of the specifications that makes professional lenses so much more expensive!
Compression
In looking through the Spring Freestyles photos, I saw compression, and small depth of field really changed a bank of lights in the ceiling of the ballroom. Take a look at these two photos, and notice the very yellow bank of square lights in the background:
They are small, high in the frame, not really adding much to the background. This was taken at wide length (24mm) taking in the dancer’s full bodies, and much of the surrounding audience. Compare that to the image below:
These were taken from the same shooting position, but I was crouched to the ground, and zoomed the lens to 150mm. This brings the bank lights much closer to the subject, and larger in the frame. With the large aperture of f/4, the lights, even though they take a larger part of the image, are blurred to not be distracting. The longer focal length and shooting higher in the room also takes away the surrounding audience and other elements making this a nice portrait right on the dance floor.
Get out and try this next time you are shooting. Whether indoors or out, this concept works. You can bring mountains, a full moon, or (gasp!) cherry blossoms closer or farther from your subject depending on how your want to compose your image. Let me know if you have any other good examples from your work. Good luck!
