I went through a lot of effort setting up and lighting a different photo but I was never quite satisfied with the results. I didn't want to waste the set-up so I started thinking about what else I could do a still-life of and my eye fell on a pair of my daughters used up pointe shoes. She had some pink roses in her room from a performance this past Sunday that were still pretty but a little past their prime. I thought I could set up a still life that would parallell the brief life of the flowers with the fleeting glory of a dancer.
I like the result quite a bit, though it's a bit postcard-y. It gave me good practice on lighting and shooting a still-life.
I bought a cheap lace curtain at a thrift store and used it as a table cloth. I lit the scene with three different lights. I'm poor so I used a 120 watt grow light for the main light, and two 70 watt Phillips "Natural" bulbs for the supplemental back light and side light.
I set my camera to 100 ISO at low contrast, and set the white balance from the table cloth.
I cropped, adjusted hue/saturation levels, color balance, dodged some highlights and added some slight noise for the vintage look.
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Good concept. You needed more ambient light on the scene to avoid grain and the hot spot in the background, but still quite nice. If the grain is intentional, then fading the saturation would add to the nostalgic feel.
Not sure I'm a big fan of 'romantic fantasy' photos like this. However, I think the set-up could have been improved. All the interesting parts are on the left...on the right you have the rather dark, unattractive stems and the messy ribbons....so I would recommend a tighter composition next time. Also, I now you have fone for the soft focus and grain effects but perhaps the detail wasn't there in the first place to allow this.....
Evokes the sentimentality often associated with ballet. The petals not on the flowers were a very nice touch. The bright spot in the upper left corner is distracting--to harsh for the picture. Love how the stems carry your eye to the flowers.
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