Just wanted to share some of my dance photos for those of you who have kindly answered my questions these last few months. Here's what a classic M6 and a 50 summicron can do (with the aid of a Minolta Spotmeter F). All photos shot at f/2, shutter speed 1/15 to 1/250, handheld.

http://www.photo.net/photodb/presentation.tcl?presentation_id=143683

http://www.photo.net/photodb/presentation.tcl?presentation_id=143683

Any comments are welcomed.

-- victor (danzfotog@yahoo.com), March 13, 2002

Answers

Very nice shots. I love the rich colors; that set design is great. What film did you use? Did you push it?

-- Preston Merchant (merchant@speakeasy.org), March 13, 2002.

I used Fuji NPZ 800 shot and processed normally. Thanks for the compliment. I can't take credit for the set design. That's actually what the theater looks like.

Here's a link to the two presentations. I hope this works. I think I had mistyped the addersses in my opening message.

Link

Link

paul

-- victor (danzfotog@yahoo.com), March 13, 2002.

The information you've added on metering and how you took the photographs is informative and clearly written. Great presentations!

-- Steven Hupp (shupp@chicagobotanic.org), March 13, 2002.

If they will hold up, a lot of these shots would look good as very oversized enlargements, to the point where the grain would be very visible. They have such rich textures and tones.

-- Preston Merchant (merchant@speakeasy.org), March 13, 2002.

These shots don't do it for me allas, For some reasons the compositions seem to be somewhat off. I like the first best. In the 2nd picture there is a dancer in the background that blends into the one before him, in the 3th there is a large black gap on the left and in the 4th you have a group of 3 dancers mixed, making a large spot, and two loners. But I admit it seems to me a difficult dance to take shots off, maybe if you would have taken a sinlge dancer in a shot, and/or more tele so the background would get more blurred things would be more in my line

-- ReinierV (rvlaam@xs4all.nl), March 14, 2002.

Very impressive. I do think a bit of cropping would improve a couple of the longer shots, but on the whole it's excellent work of its type. And a real technical challenge!

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), March 14, 2002.

Great job with the timing Victor. Tell us, did you use the Minolta spotmeter for all the shots? Or just the Leica fat spot?

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), March 14, 2002.

Thanks for the comments.

All these shots were posted full frame, meaning, I just had them scanned at the photofinishers and then posted them. I'll be doing some photoshop editing on them and the others that I didn't post.

I did use a Minolta spotmeter on all of them. I don't rely on my Leica meter because with all that black and then the bright highlights, it's sometimes tough to guess how much to compensate.

As an added noted, as I shot these each night, I changed my position. I don't move around at all during a performance, mostly to keep from being noticed by the audience.

I've been thinking about adding a 90mm to my Leica arsenal, but the focusing issues, especially in low light conditions, make it a hard sell for me. I'd rather stick to my Nikon for telephoto right now, although I don't use it during actual performances because of the noise anymore. When I shoot a dress rehearsal, that's when I come fully armed with a Nikon and Leica and when I move around during the run.

Anyway, I'm glad they generated some comments. I just wanted to show what the Leica can do in dance concerts.

I'll post some others from other concerts soon.

-- victor (danzfotog@yahoo.com), March 14, 2002.