Sunday Session (and a pullback)

sunnyside_up

sunnyside_up

<span class="poty">POTY (Joint) 2016</span>
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Bethy
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Been busy this weekend - Dexter yesterday https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/dexters-6-month-shoot.585187/ and today I had two girls from a semi-local dance troupe. Had loads of fun, they were really up for anything. Good thing I didn't have anyone else coming because I kept them here for nearly three hours with several costume changes! What I like about the dance kids is they actually WANT their photos taken, and they don't need a lot of direction.
Started off with some 'normal' shots, then moved into the costumes. I've included at the end a pullback of my lounge studio which had the setup for a lot of the shots, except the back softbox wasn't always in use. Primarily, gridded Octa with Elinchrom Quadras camera left, secondary light when needed rear right, sometimes gridded, sometimes not.
As always, open for feedback and thanks for looking!

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The Dancers by Beth Botterill, on Flickr
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The Dancers by Beth Botterill, on Flickr
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Dancer by Beth Botterill, on Flickr
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The Dancers by Beth Botterill, on Flickr
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The Dancers by Beth Botterill, on Flickr
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What a brilliant set of images but to be honest I wouldnt expect anything different from you.

Love the humour in the 2nd set :)
 
"Excellent" work Bethy, nothing more to be said.(y)

George.
 
I sound like a stuck record on your threads but these are beautiful, Bethy. The first two are really great poses IMO and those last two are brilliant! So good.
 
Love the third one. A real timeless elegance to it. The first one is great. Possibly could have benefited from a reflector/hairlight camera right, but that's ultra picky and I love it anyway.

Great to see more of your work again!! X
 
Excellent as per usual Bethy good to see the setup :D

My favs are the funny ballet dancers that is excellently done and made me chuckle.. (y)
 
Brilliant sets - I love the last two, they look a lovely pair of madames.
You are so lucky to have such great subjects.
 
Great to see you posting again Bethy, seems like everyone's been busy this weekend. Tricky to pick a favourite they are all superb.
 
Fab stuff. Like them all. Love the shoes image, the light just catches them beautifully :))

Thanks for the set up image too.

Gaz
 
Wow - I'm overwhelmed by all the great feedback! Thanks so much everyone. :)

jakeblu said:
What a brilliant set of images but to be honest I wouldnt expect anything different from you.

Love the humour in the 2nd set :)
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Thank you so much... what a great compliment! I must have taken about 200 photos yesterday and they were so easy to work with, they came up with that idea themselves and they turned out a treat!

G.K.Jnr. said:
"Excellent" work Bethy, nothing more to be said.(y)

George.
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Thanks George. :)

gazmorton2000 said:
I sound like a stuck record on your threads but these are beautiful, Bethy. The first two are really great poses IMO and those last two are brilliant! So good.
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Thank you so much, Gareth. Soon as the girls walked in, I knew it was going to be a great session. So pretty... and so polite!!

CraigDHD said:
great set, first one is stunning.

are you using a fan on the hair in the first couple? and can I also ask what width of background are you using?
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Thanks Craig. Actually, I had a sister 'whaft' the other with a trigrip lol... The background is a cut down 2.72m Shadow Grey Lastolite seamless paper with about a foot off the end. I can fit a full width in my lounge, but this is the one I had set up from the previous day (for a little'n) so just left it.

AdamTudor said:
Fantastic as always Beth!
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Thanks Adam!

Sir SR said:
Love the third one. A real timeless elegance to it. The first one is great. Possibly could have benefited from a reflector/hairlight camera right, but that's ultra picky and I love it anyway.

Great to see more of your work again!! X
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Thank you Shaheed. I did actually have a reflector popping a bit back into it, (you should see the one without it!) but it could probably do with having it a bit lighter. But having said that, I was sort of looking to have that side of her feathered off and have the main concentration of light coming in as it does. Now that I'm looking at it, it would have been cool to have a honeycomb just outlining her on that side... I'll have to remember that if I get a next time for this.

It was so nice to have the camera back in my hands properly!

Tintin124 said:
Excellent as per usual Bethy good to see the setup :D

My favs are the funny ballet dancers that is excellently done and made me chuckle.. (y)
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Cheers dude. The setup was sort of an afterthought - I should have cleaned up a bit first lol... I must try to remember though to take them because they're really well received.

Broric said:
Excellent as always :)

Really like it when you show setup shots as well so thanks for that one
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Thank you! And you're welcome! :)

minnnt said:
Selective colour on the walls... ffs.
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Yea yea... I know I know... it's a VERY old picture I did of Peggy's Cove in Nova Scotia and my husband had it done for me quite a few years ago ... I actually did that selective colouring on it when it first made it's appearance, so it was quite 'in' back then. You wouldn't believe the people that comment on it though... I personally can't stand it, but the husband likes it. And it'll cost a pretty penny to replace it with something else. So unless you're buying, it's staying. lol!! :)

ChasG said:
Brilliant sets - I love the last two, they look a lovely pair of madames.
You are so lucky to have such great subjects.
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Thanks! Yes, I lucked on with these girls. They did a fantastic job and made my job effortless.

Livin The Dream said:
Great to see you posting again Bethy, seems like everyone's been busy this weekend. Tricky to pick a favourite they are all superb.
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Thanks Kris. It'd been awhile as I'd been ill. But I'm getting my mojo back now. Thanks for the feedback! :)

cargo said:
Fab stuff. Like them all. Love the shoes image, the light just catches them beautifully :))

Thanks for the set up image too.

Gaz
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Cheers Gary. I like the shoes image too. This was mum's idea and I just built on it a bit. I always say 'I don't want to see the soles of your shoes'... but in this instance, it worked. Well worn tap shoes speak! :)

Again, thanks for all the wonderful feedback. I really do appreciate you all taking the time to comment. :)
 
Great set, as Dan says above, the tap shoe shot raised a smile, great shot.
 
Serendipitous Sid said:
That tap shoe shot's inspired :)
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Thanks Dan. I was pleasantly surprised with that one to be honest. Turns out to be a big hit!

doofus said:
Great set, as Dan says above, the tap shoe shot raised a smile, great shot.
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Thank you, Alan. I appreciate you taking the time to comment.

Marcus Geezer said:
Super set. Very inspiring. Is that a grey vinyl backdrop?
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Cheers Marcus. High praise coming from you. I really value your opinion! It's a 'Shadow Grey' paper seamless, cut down slightly from a 3m roll. I can fit a 3m in my lounge, but was up from the previous day so I left it.
 
sunnyside_up said:
Cheers Marcus. High praise coming from you. I really value your opinion! It's a 'Shadow Grey' paper seamless, cut down slightly from a 3m roll. I can fit a 3m in my lounge, but was up from the previous day so I left it.
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I'm very humbled you think that. I've always loved your work, your portrait work is awesome. I ask about the paper roll, it looks so clean compared to mine! I think I might need to recycle mine and get a new one.
 
As a keen amateur, these all look wonderful to me, especially number 3. I am just getting my kit together so I can practice/better on my portraits. Can I ask the approx. workspace you have? I am very resticted to 6ft X 7ft
 
I'm surprised by how small your studio is!

Not saying that's a bad thing... just that your shots always give the impression of them being in a very large space.
 
Pookeyhead said:
I'm surprised by how small your studio is!

Not saying that's a bad thing... just that your shots always give the impression of them being in a very large space.
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Thanks David. It's just my lounge... I normally shoot on a full 3m (well, 2.72m really) paper background, and depending on the orientation and lens I'm using, I have to extend the background in post sometimes. That particular background has been cut down by about (or just over) a foot.
 
Marcus Geezer said:
I'm very humbled you think that. I've always loved your work, your portrait work is awesome. I ask about the paper roll, it looks so clean compared to mine! I think I might need to recycle mine and get a new one.
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:)

The colour of the paper is very forgiving, and the processing I tend to favour seems to clean some imperfections out on its own. I also probably waste more than I should as I will often times just chuck out what ends up on the floor after each session if it's been damaged by say... tap shoes... ;)
 
saul01 said:
As a keen amateur, these all look wonderful to me, especially number 3. I am just getting my kit together so I can practice/better on my portraits. Can I ask the approx. workspace you have? I am very resticted to 6ft X 7ft
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Thank you Saul. I consider myself lucky to have a friendly sized lounge which will allow me to use a standard full width's paper background and allow me to place subjects with about 4 ft separation. But I also tend to use grids a lot of the time on my main light to keep it well controlled.

[EDIT] The husband says it's about 14x12 but all of that is not workable due to a fireburner and doors and archways.
 
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Really elegant photos, especially 'Dancer'. When I saw the tackety boots I wondered if you could have had a shot of them tap dancing, showing movement. Might have destroyed your backdrop though.
 
sunnyside_up said:
:)

The colour of the paper is very forgiving, and the processing I tend to favour seems to clean some imperfections out on its own. I also probably waste more than I should as I will often times just chuck out what ends up on the floor after each session if it's been damaged by say... tap shoes... ;)
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I think I need to get my paper background rolls out and see what needs to go and stay to be honest. If the family have younger children, what I've found is that if the paper isn't too bad, cutting it off and giving it to them for drawing goes down well.
 
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