Street dance festival - Kanazawa

[Manfred M]

A night shot showing some for the dancers in traditional dress who are participating in a large street dance in downtown Kanazawa.

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured.

[Donald]

A lesson in using depth-of-field. The people in the background are thrown just enough out-of-focus to ensure that our attention is firmly directed towards the three ladies nearest us.

[bnnrcn]

Nice image, it must be difficult to wear those slippers with socks

[vaez]

My photos show the traditional ceremony of love

[Manfred M]

A lesson in using depth-of-field. The people in the background are thrown just enough out-of-focus to ensure that our attention is firmly directed towards the three ladies nearest us.

When hand-hold shooting at night at top ISO, marginal shutter speeds, shooting wide open is just one of those technical decisions that also becomes a compositional one as well.

[IzzieK]

When hand-hold shooting at night at top ISO, marginal shutter speeds, shooting wide open is just one of those technical decisions that also becomes a compositional one as well.

+1 to Donald's comment...but how much is marginal SS? Does this depends on the speed of movement too? In this shot, this would not seem to be too much movement here. Do you always have to shoot wide open at night for nighttime shots like this?

[Manfred M]

+1 to Donald's comment...but how much is marginal SS? Does this depends on the speed of movement too? In this shot, this would not seem to be too much movement here. Do you always have to shoot wide open at night for nighttime shots like this?

There is no easy or simple answer to this question, as the level and type of lighting, focal length being shot, the camera's high ISO performance and the type of action all influence shutter speed decisions. This was Japanese folk dancing, relatively slow and deliberate, with some more vigorous arm and hand motion. Given that I was shooting at focal lengths from around 135mm to 200mm on a full-frame camera, I wanted to stay around 1/100th sec shutter speed. At ISO 6400, the D800 is getting fairly noisy. so apertures at or close to f/2.8 were where I was shooting.

[IzzieK]

There is no easy or simple answer to this question, as the level and type of lighting, focal length being shot, the camera's high ISO performance and the type of action all influence shutter speed decisions. This was Japanese folk dancing, relatively slow and deliberate, with some more vigorous arm and hand motion. Given that I was shooting at focal lengths from around 135mm to 200mm on a full-frame camera, I wanted to stay around 1/100th sec shutter speed. At ISO 6400, the D800 is getting fairly noisy. so apertures at or close to f/2.8 were where I was shooting.

I have no experience in night shooting with any of my digital cameras yet because we are home at the moment...unlike in Oz when I was in films and I must admit that all my good ones are "accident shots". So I am trying to take notes of your night shots...Thank you for this. I am learning all, if I can, from your night shots and of course, others too because they are all good and to my eyes, perfect. Please do not give up on me asking questions even if I have to be repetitive at times.

[Manfred M]

Not a problem Izzie. I generally don't do a lot of night work that isn't architecture or landscapes, so the shots were taken under less than ideal conditions.

Like any other shot, you are dealing with a lot of tradeoffs here and trying to balance things out to get an acceptable shot, in spite of the tough shooting conditions. This is really one of those times I wish I had a D4 in my camera bag.

[RBSinTo]

Manfred,
Nice shot, especially considering the less than ideal conditions.
My only suggestion would be to crop out the canopy at the very top of the image as it adds nothing to the story and is a distraction from the subjects.

[Manfred M]

Manfred,
Nice shot, especially considering the less than ideal conditions.
My only suggestion would be to crop out the canopy at the very top of the image as it adds nothing to the story and is a distraction from the subjects.

I agree. I have fairly limited editing tools here on the trip (editing with a touch pad is tricky) and the laptop screen is not great. Most of the edits are going to have to wait until I get home again and have a proper set of tools to work with.