Two Ballerinas : Two Sisters : Two Lights

Meet Maddy and Katie.  Meet two ballerinas. This was so cool watching them from my lens.  Everything was perfect. I was sliding around on the floor of their dance studio – literally, I mopped the floor.  I woke up the next morning with my neck wore from being on the floor so much with the camera to my face. I’m not a dancer – never have been.  In fact, I look pretty silly when I try to dance!  But… I have a great appreciation and respect for it!  Talent of all kinds takes time, strength, courage, practice, heart and dedication to develop.  Maddy is 18 and has been dancing since she was a little girl.  Katie is 15 and has the same record.

I love this picture of Maddy below.  She looks like she is floating on water.  I used a dark background and two lights to shoot most of this.  I wanted to see shadows and depth, so I chose to light from the side.  I had one light about eye level behind a scrim and another almost at the floor, also behind a scrim.  My settings for most of the shoot were around ISO 100, f 1.6 – 2.8, 30 sec, white balance – K temp 4200 for cool and 5600 for warmth .  In photoshop I darkened the edges, cropped and cleaned up the floor.

I have another post of some large print ideas I think will be fun for the girls!  The best is yet to come. Enjoy! Jen

Trey was working in the studio and I couldn’t resist.  I saw this on pinterest and created my take on it . I placed a light head right behind Maddy.  It gave me a little flare behind her skirt and I darkened in photoshop and added a vintage coloring.  I love how old it looks! I love how the light captures the muscles in the their legs.  This was pretty cool to see them up on point at the same time, in the same position. I love close photography.  The end of Katie’s shoes are the only thing in focus.  It lengthens her body and poise.