Eagle Dance

[Manfred M]

[Shadowman]

Nice effort, I see the need for the detailed background but at the same time it distracts as I see interesting faces within.

[DanK]

I agree with John on both counts. I'd consider burning it.

[Manfred M]

Thanks for the comments John and Dan.

I've revisited the image. My main concern was that burning the image down would have a negative impact on the overall look of the image because the foreground was in shadow. The lighting conditions were mediocre at the venue. I was shooting at ISO 128,000 at f/2.8, which gave me a shutter speed of 1/320 sec, which is a bit low for capturing a quickly moving dancer.

Here is the reworked image:



I've already pushed the noise reduction to the max (and the front view is rather noisy). Looking at both versions, I find I prefer the first one, even though the lighting is a bit more distracting than I would like. Event shooting with theatre lighting is never a pleasure.

[Shadowman]

Manfred,

The edit really pushed the wingspan and head forward and even gave a bit of lift to the cast shadows below, much better.

[Round Tuit]

Manfred,
I am curious as to what caused the odd shaped light patches in the shadow of the wings in your reworked image?

[Manfred M]

Manfred,
I am curious as to what caused the odd shaped light patches in the shadow of the wings in your reworked image?

Strange theatrical lighting. I took this shot as they were dimming the main lights.

[bambleweeney]

For me the second shot is better, both are good though

[Jim A]

To me, Manfred, by far the biggest bar to this being a really good image, is the lighting/divider which bisects the image at the middle-rear. Personally, I would tone it down quite a bit as it is a real eye-snag!

[mugge]

The theatrical lighting is so difficult in this image I am surprised you even got a picture to show

[Manfred M]

To me, Manfred, by far the biggest bar to this being a really good image, is the lighting/divider which bisects the image at the middle-rear. Personally, I would tone it down quite a bit as it is a real eye-snag!

This will never be a great image. The lighting is simply not particularly good. The defining parts of the image, in my view are the interesting background, reflections off the back drop and the bright line of lights along the floor. Remove those and the image becomes dull and uninteresting.

The reason I left the line in is that it accentuates the wings and the shadow of the wings. While the line along the floor is still reasonably bright, there is no logical reason for it to be that way and that adds negative tension into the shot.

[Manfred M]

The theatrical lighting is so difficult in this image I am surprised you even got a picture to show

Frankly, so am I... It's amazing how much detail a modern camera actually captures even in poor lighting conditions.

[smcrews]

This will never be a great image. The lighting is simply not particularly good. The defining parts of the image, in my view are the interesting background, reflections off the back drop and the bright line of lights along the floor. Remove those and the image becomes dull and uninteresting.

While I think you may be right about some of the lighting challenges, I will have to say this is one of my favorite shots of yours. It's quite unique and very dramatic. There's a lot of character with this shot. Well done.