Fire Dancer

**theantiquetiger** · 11-02-2013, 12:05 AM

There is a local fire dancer group here in Baton Rouge. I decided to go take a few shots of their practice. Only took 9 shots and grabbed this one. The girl dancing here is actually a professional portrait photographer (a real one, not a Facebook "professional"). My favorite thing about this image is it is 100%, zero crop. I did just miss her feet, but she was in all black, so by burning the bottom, it rid the error. She was standing in a parking lot, so the fire was reflecting off the rocks, stealing your gaze from her, so I would probably would have burned in the bottom any way, even if I grabbed her feet.

fire dancer1a by Theantiquetiger, on Flickr

**QuietOne** · 11-02-2013, 02:08 PM

The burning does help. I can just see the tops of her legs once I look closer. How about just doing a rough, curved diagonal from her left hip to just at the bottom of her right thigh, and making all of that dark/solid? Kind of a fading out, with mostly the upper body left.

Oh, and neat shot. What a great opportunity.

**theantiquetiger** · 11-02-2013, 02:39 PM

It seems darker here on the forum than in Lightroom. You can nearly see to her knee in LR. Here is one more from last night. Very difficult shooting because of low light plus moving subject and moving bright light

fire dancer2 by Theantiquetiger, on Flickr

**asnow** · 11-02-2013, 04:23 PM

You say "It seems darker here on the forum than in Lightroom". I've noticed that with my pics. When I export a picture as a jpeg it seems to come out a bit darker. When I remember, I tend to brighten it just a bit before I do the export.

**theantiquetiger** · 11-05-2013, 04:30 AM

Any more critiques of these shots (especially the first one)? She thought they both are amazing and even changed her FB profile pic to the first one. I told her I felt honored that she did that, considering the amazing artwork she produces. Here is her site (NSFW) http://www.breathlessboudoir.com

How can I get better with this tough lighting? You can click on the link below the image to get the setting. I am shooting into a dark area with some very bright touches. I shot in TV mode, setting it at 1/60 (handheld) and upped the ISO to 3200. She is dancing, not posing, so getting it sharp on her face is near impossible at this speed.