The Photo

The Equipment and Settings

• Nikon D700
• Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 AFS-GVR2 @ 110mm, hand-held
• Wireless flash triggered via radio triggers, from behind / right
• 1/125 sec @ f/2.8 & ISO 3200
• Manual Exposure, Manual WB, RAW

The Shooting Conditions

This was a private performance of the Cirque du Soleil group at a wedding this past weekend.  We had multiple photographers covering the performance, of course, so I opted to shoot from the side and get some of the stage lights in the background.  They weren’t that bright in reality, however, so I also used an un-gelled (daylight temperature) flash in the background, to the right of this composition.  This illuminated the smoke with a very blue-ish hue, since daylight flash is around 5,000 Kelvin and my WB was set to around 3,000 Kelvin.

Shooting at 1/125 sec in such fast-paced action conditions, I had to try and focus on the moments of stillness if I wanted to get a sharp shot.  (Although some of the blurry moments were pretty cool, too!)

The Post-Processing

For this image, I used the SLR Lounge Preset System for Adobe Camera Raw / Bridge CS6.  We are also still performing testing to see how we can improve the SLR Lounge Preset System for Lightroom 5 beta, and will post more images using LR5 beta in the near future.  This final image was created in Bridge CS6 using the SLR Lounge “Soft Portrait” preset plus a little extra contrast, and burning / dodging.

Take care, and happy clicking!
=Matthew Saville=

The SLR Lounge Preset System

The SLR Lounge Preset System is designed to enable users to achieve virtually any look and effect within 3-5 simple clicks. From basic color correction, vintage fades, black & white effects, tilt-shift effects, faux HDR, retouching, detail enhancing, and so much more. The sky is the limit with what has been dubbed the most powerful and intuitive preset system available. Click the link above to learn more/purchase!  The SLR Lounge Preset System is now available for both Lightroom 4 and Adobe Camera Raw! (Bridge CS6)

You can also purchase the SLR Lounge Preset System as part of the Lightroom 4 Workshop Collection.