In their element.

[hans3185]

Hey, I'm joining a contest for JPG magazine, and I need help widdling down my options to see which I should submit into the voting section.

Heres what they said:
"We want to see your photographs that capture performers On Stage. Whether music, dance, comedy, theater, poetry, or magic, show us the photographs that capture performers in their element. Your subject's stage might be bathed in spotlights, or it could be a low-light set for a street performer. Whether the audience buys a ticket or just wanders by, show us performers at work. "


And heres the ones I narrowed it down to.

Thanks for your suggestions

 

[PkennethV]

Definitely the first one for me. I can't pick out exactly why...it just is

 

[compuwar]

#3

 

[spetykowski]

being a jack's mannequin fan, i feel that the first one really captures McMahon's stage presence. He is such a stong singer, and really gets into his performances. i just love the first picture. beautiful picture all around colors are just amazing.

though for the contest, i like the second cobra starship picture... if only the geiko cave man didnt bother me so much.


what kind of camera/set-up did you take these with?

 

[hans3185]

being a jack's mannequin fan, i feel that the first one really captures McMahon's stage presence. He is such a stong singer, and really gets into his performances. i just love the first picture. beautiful picture all around colors are just amazing.

though for the contest, i like the second cobra starship picture... if only the geiko cave man didnt bother me so much.


what kind of camera/set-up did you take these with?

I have a Nikon D40 and borrowed my friend's mom's 70-200mm lens lol. I was so surprised that she let me borrow it.

After weighing it down and getting other opinions, I decided to choose the Jack's photo.

Please vote for it

http://www.jpgmag.com/photos/879009

 

[ChrisA]

I wish you could mix up some of these. To be really good and win, the photo has to work on two levels. First it has to capture some emotional content from the performer. Then also and equally important it has to be great graphically, this means it has to be good just in terms of how it uses blocks of color and line and shape, The one of Katy is the cleanest of your compositions. The one of Jacks is good but you made some compositional errors (Like having an object clipped by a frame boundary.)

With a long lens like the 200mm you can change and "correct" background by moving just a few feet

With a bit of Photoshop work you can address some of these compositions. I never like to mess with the main subject except to adjust color balance and exposure but I have no problem with whacking the heck out of background objects, I'll blur them or desaturate them or clone out clutter and even use the old darkroom trick of edge burning. The eye sees the main subject relative to the setting. Change the setting and you can change the way the eye sees the subject without making it look faked

 

[seenew]

3 and 4, I'm leaning towards 4.

 

[hans3185]

I wish you could mix up some of these. To be really good and win, the photo has to work on two levels. First it has to capture some emotional content from the performer. Then also and equally important it has to be great graphically, this means it has to be good just in terms of how it uses blocks of color and line and shape, The one of Katy is the cleanest of your compositions. The one of Jacks is good but you made some compositional errors (Like having an object clipped by a frame boundary.)

With a long lens like the 200mm you can change and "correct" background by moving just a few feet

With a bit of Photoshop work you can address some of these compositions. I never like to mess with the main subject except to adjust color balance and exposure but I have no problem with whacking the heck out of background objects, I'll blur them or desaturate them or clone out clutter and even use the old darkroom trick of edge burning. The eye sees the main subject relative to the setting. Change the setting and you can change the way the eye sees the subject without making it look faked

Thanks for the advise. To be honest, I'm still fairly new to this so any criticism is great, haha.