Ballerina 003
Ballet Teacher Kelly-Ann De Marco on a Railway Bridge in South Africa.
When classic Finesse meet rugged steel
Ballet Teacher Kelly-Ann De Marco on a Railway Bridge in South Africa.
When classic Finesse meet rugged steel
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When classic Finesse meet rugged steel
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Dec, 2014Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
The Photo was captured at an old train station, just out side the town Nigel in Gauteng, South AfricaTime
To be honest with you, it is so long ago I can't remember exactly. If I remember correctly it was around noon or just after.Lighting
It was at the start of my career, so at that point I didn't have much gear. This was shot bouncing a bare flash off a 109cm round silver reflector for fill lightEquipment
Nothing fancy was used, I think at that stage I was shooting with the Canon 650 or 700D with kit lenses with a Nissin Flash (If I remember correctly, lol)Inspiration
Now this I can remember, because the "want or need" to take images of dance forms in natural settings remains something that fills my mind all the time. There is very little that competes with it. I wanted to do a shoot with a ballerina at the train station because of the contrast of the elegance of the outfits and the form with the cold hard concrete, asphalt, steel and rugged nature. To be honest; yes this remains one of my favorite images; but, I do not think I have nailed it yet. As with most of my images, I mostly see where I have failed the image in the creation process. Someone told me that I had to divorce my images at some stage otherwise I will never move on to the next. To this day, I do not do my own image culling; I outsource it. I am just too connected to my images and every single one tells me a story... I am married to them. They form such a great part of me that it feels like I lose a little of myself each time I press delete.Editing
Jip... Lightroom is the digital photographers "darkroom." At this stage of my journey, the process was still drawn out and experimental, but a fair amount of skin blending, shadow and highlight regain was done. A great deal of brush work which is now uncommon in my process. Sharpening, clarity and blending was done before the image was taken to Monochrome and levels and curves to bring the contrast to where i felt it needed to be. These days most of these actions are locked up in actions that I have created over time... lol, actions I am sure some of my photographer friends would like to get their hands on. Hehehe. But nope, it's mine :)In my camera bag
OMW, I am a gear head. I probably don't need have the stuff I have in my kit; and the list is way to long to even list here in without a gear check. I have a Canon 6D, 700D, 650D and some other smaller ones or older ones Lenses: 24-70mm F2.8 Tamron, 24-105mm F4 Canon, 70-200mm F2.8 Canon a 50mm and some kit lenses (I may have forgotten one or two) I run up to 5 Yongnuo YN600EX-RT Speedlights with an assortment of modifiers My setup is completely mobile so I have large blockout screens, reflectors and backdrops.... but guys; you do not need all these stuff to take a good photo. A full frame camera with a good lens helps a lot; but you can get good images even with a mobile phone. In my hand, I usually find the Canon 6D with the 24-105mm F4 lens, as far as light.... from natural light to what ever the scene may requireFeedback
I don't think there is much advice to capture something like this to be honest, but obviously, subject is key. And the, it's all about the light... watch the light, watch the light. We are so busy with settings and gear that we forget to put something of ourselves in the image... and without that component the image will leave the viewer "wanting"... like something is missing. I think the best advice I can give is that the end product must have some details in the shadows and Highlights must not be blown. So, get something you can reflect some light back into the shadow areas. You want shadows, but you want beautiful shadows that you can see into. I expose for the background and fill the subject with natural, modified and artificial light to stretch the dynamic throughout the whole image. My one regret about the image is that I haven't discovered Hyper-Sync shooting yet.... I really should do this one again.
