Posts Tagged ‘MD’

Arthur Murray – Fall Freestyles next week

©TimeLine Media - Arthur Murray Fall Freestyles

It is less than a week until we get back to ballroom dancing! This upcoming Friday and Saturday is the DC Area Arthur Murray Fall Freestyles event being held at the Sheraton Premiere in Tysons Corner, VA. Overall, we are excited to get back to the dance floor after the summer break. There has been a lot of dancing during that time, and we want to make more of our photos to go along with the dancing. When we first stepped into the ballroom world, the Fall Freestyles was the first ballroom dance event we attended. Of course, it can be intimidating if you have never been a part of the scene! There are sparkling, beautiful dresses around the hotel; ladies have makeup and jewels to catch the lights and eyes of the judges; and the loud music gets the audience to cheer on their fellow students and instructors.

©TimeLine Media - Arthur Murray Fall Freestyles
Overlooking the Arthur Murray Fall Freestyles from the balcony ©TimeLine Media

We are also going back to a venue that we used to frequent more often. Although it is familiar, the Sheraton in Tysons Corner has undergone a lot of renovations. Not only the guestroom, but the ballroom and reception areas have also changed. We will try to take advantage of the nice balcony that they still have to get overhead views of the event. If you have friends or would like to come to view the event from the mezzanine balcony, contact one of the DC Area Studios. They will gladly give you details on the availability and cost for a seat up there. Not only will you be able to cheer on your friends, but you will have a nice vantage of this fun event. See you next weekend!

©TimeLine Media - Arthur Murray Fall Freestyles
©TimeLine Media – Arthur Murray Fall Freestyles

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

Baltimore – iPhone 5

©TimeLine Media - Graphic design on side of car hauler

I felt bad about the comparison I made last week comparing the iPhone 5 images to a Nikon D4, a full-frame DSLR. Although, I was testing the limits of the smart phone camera that early in the morning without much help from any natural light. So today I will post some photos from bright, sunny conditions. This will show what it can do in very bright light. Comparatively, this should even the competition. This is not the “best” light for photos. Most of these are in the middle of the day without many clouds in the sky. Addtionally the sun is almost directly overhead. Portraits would not look very good in this light. However buildings, structures and other non-faces can be done. Additionally, with some post-processing they can look decent even from the iPhone.

iPhone Comparison

©TimeLine Media - Baltimore Transamerica Tower with iPhone
©TimeLine Media – Baltimore Transamerica Tower with iPhone
©TimeLine Media - Bank of America Building & William Donald Schaefer Building with iPhone
©TimeLine Media – Bank of America Building & William Donald Schaefer Building with iPhone

Baltimore, MD has the tallest buildings in the state of Maryland. Just a few blocks off the Inner Harbor, and you are in the canyons of streets lined with these buildings. Having plenty of overhead sun and no clouds in the sky are emphatically perfect conditions for a point and shoot or smartphone camera to perform it’s best. The smaller sensor in these devices require much more light than larger cameras, so these images are almost as good as what they can produce.

Indycar Paddock

©TimeLine Media - Graphic design on side of car hauler
©TimeLine Media – Graphic design on side of car hauler

With just a touch of clarity and contrast, the graphics painted onto the side of this truck are and the sharpness of the text in the license plate are indistinguishable from images taken with any other camera. The bright light in the area means that there is no camera shake from slow shutter speeds. Especially when taking photos of dark subjects, the smartphone camera will compensate for the lack of light by increasing the shutter speed which is very difficult to hold still without introducing shake. These cameras were not designed to be mounted on a tripod, and are hard to hold steady for very long. Give a scene lots of light, though, and that problem goes away.

With the low ISO settings in the bright light, vivid colors can be reproduced. In this last photo, the bright red paint on this hauler is faithfully reproduced. Adding more Clarity in Lightroom is the only adjustment needed to finish this image. If only the iPhone were able to write the RAW data from the sensor, it could be a viable replacement in the right situations!

©TimeLine Media - detail of racing hauler
©TimeLine Media – detail of racing hauler

TimeLine Mediawww.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

Youth Football Portraits

©TimeLIne Media - football player portrait

Recently, I had someone that was on my email list request that I make some portraits for her brother that plays youth football. It would be perfect for my project for making more sports portraits. I have plenty of action shots from players during games, or dancers during competition, but I want to expand my portfolio of setup portraits where I control more of the lighting, posing, and composition. It is no surprise that trying to get a clean image while the game is going on is difficult.

Football Field Set

Most sports photographers resort to heavy cropping to eliminate distracting backgrounds or other elements that take away from their main subject. When I photograph ballroom dancers, I use additional flashes in order to make the colors better, and to make the settings on my camera little less extreme, but the lighting has to cover a large area. It is not setup specifically for one spot, or subject, so it is much more flat overall. With “D”, the football player, we had an open, empty football field to use. It was a very bright, sunny afternoon, so I had to use an ND filter to knock down some of the light going into the camera to keep a shallower depth of field. Adding some flash to fill in helped to bring him out from the darker background making him stand out.

©TimeLIne Media - football player portrait
©TimeLIne Media – football player portrait

With all the light out there, it would seem to be easy to make this portrait, but bright sun makes for dark shadows. In order to bring some detail back into his face from under his helmet, I needed a flash to fill that in. A flash in a medium-size softbox placed just off camera left brought in enough light to fill in his face, and highlight more of the top of his uniform.

Background Setting

©TimeLIne Media - football player portrait
©TimeLIne Media – football player portrait

We did a few other poses, but this was another keeper for me. The afternoon sun was to camera left, so I used the flash through a softbox on the right to fill in his left side which was much darker. Had the aperture stopped down more than usual for a portrait since I wanted to keep their home field sign in focus. I am always looking for more portrait subjects, and like having the element of sports for props and settings so contact me if you would like to have some made!

©TimeLIne Media - football player portrait
©TimeLIne Media – football player portrait

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

1 48 49 50 51 52 89