The 'School Dance'

My daughter asked me to take some photographs of her, and her friends before they went to the school dance last night.

I've just started working through the pictures and I am sorting them into 'keepers' and 'losers'.
Very high percentage of 'keepers', which pleases me, I must be getting the hang of some of this 'photography stuff', it's only taken about 30 years

Anyway, I wouldn't mind getting your thoughts on this particular image ?

I think you should have let them get dressed first.

That is a very good shot.

I really like the lightning.

The models looks calm and natural. Thats always nice - doing portraits.

Very well done.

A few hairs on the brown head - could be cloned out (below the necklace)....thats all.

It is my considered opinion that they are both a great deal better looking than you.

Real shame about the crinkly curtain on the left
..and the detached fingers on the girl's back

The main thing: Were they pleased?
Matt

Nice shot very good lighting. The brunette has wonderful eyes. What lens did you use and was the flash on camera

I've done another version with a more blurred background and that sorts the curtain thing. I was quite pleased with the lighting, and it's thanks to a post of yours Matt. I have a AF500FTZ and the K10D, and I thought there may have been problems re: TTL / P-TTL. But I read about setting it to manual and varying the power and aperture, so I did a few test shots with the flash bounced of the walls and ceiling to the right, and a white sheet held to the left, seemed to work ok for me. The settings were f10 - 1/100 sec. This picture and most of the others were taken with the 18-55mm kit lens, it seemed good as I could get the full length the girls wanted so they could get a look at their dresses, and I could zoom in for close-ups without moving the camera position.

you Amaze me Galoot.
Here it is you, with your trusty camera, taking very nice photos of your lovely daughter and her friend, as they head off to a dance...(where there'll be hundreds of young boyz (each of whom having enough testosterone in thier systems to drop a race horse)).

Sadly I'd have been too preoccupied, remembering what I was like at that age.. to pick up a camera....I would be too tempted to pick up a baseball bat and a roll of duct tape.. and been lying in wait for any "Dates" that were foolhardy enough to be ringing my doorbell.....

Don, the baseball bat was tied to the leg of the tripod !!!

I could hear shouts from the bedrooms when they were all getting ready, "who's got the titty-tape". When it was explained to me that 'titty-tape' is for keeping certain body parts within dresses, I did offer the duct tape to make sure that everything was secure and to keep the dress on.

There were 9 girls in all, they have been together as a group for years, so my daughter asked me to take a few pictures of them all before they leave school, the school dance was one opportunity, and I think they want something more formal at a later date, so this was good practice.

Here is another I liked,

God I wish I was 16 again

Sadly I now look at beautiful girls like a photographer looks at a landscape (cos the wife would beat me senseless otherwise )

Seriously though, this is a very nice shot Galoot, I would have been pleased with that myself, and who cares about the crinkly curtain etc.

I may be too sensitive, but in the first image the girls look naked, perhaps not the impression that was wanted. I'd crop really tight to have the eyes more predominant, perhaps cropping up to the base of the neck.

The second image is good but the blurring effect has come too close the the arms.

The reason I was pleased with the majority of the photographs, was because of the lighting. I have used flash before but never got it right, even the dedicated flash, it just never worked for me. I had planned to get one of the fancy new P-TTL guns for my K10D, but then I thought, what if they don't work for me either ? I've seen posts here where people are having mixed results. Flash and me don't get on !!!!
Then as I mentioned above, Matt's post about going for manual settings on power and aperture with my AF500FTZ, and although it scared me, I found easy to set up after a few test shots. Not a single 'RED-EYE" in 100 images - that pleased me too.
I may actually use flash a bit more now, well I might ?

As to the initial picture, 'justgetoutandride', I know what you mean, but the girls love it, they say it makes them look more "Hollywood" ?

I processed all the pictures with a crop here and there, and a little lift in levels, but they all wanted the the extreme PhotoShop treatment, so I did as I was told
There were so many photographs taken that night by the girls, their friends and families, on camera phones, disposables and even Polaroids,
that I guess they wanted something different from me. At least I have the originals and I can learn from the 'curtain' errors and look forward to taking the "Last Day At School" session.

Here is another 'keeper', with a mono-conversion, the rest are on my "www" below