Rangefinder Magazine
April 2006

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The Last Word Bruce Dorn
 

“Backstage”

THIS IS ONE of my very favorite images. It was created “startto- finish” during one of our Photo Impressionism® seminars in Scottsdale, AZ. These charming young dancers graced us with their natural poise, leaving me with nothing to add but a touch of direction, a point of view, an appropriate light, and a scattering of roses.

I found this spot during a cursory location scout. As I absentmindedly gazed at the spot, I flashed on Degas’ beautiful dance studies rendered under theatrical illumination and quickly visualized this composition. While I was momentarily focused on the idea of reviewing his efforts, I quickly decided against it. I preferred the idea of taking inspiration from my mind’s recollection of his paintings rather than a studious review.

A tall, narrow window spilled cool skylight across the warm travertine floor and provided a very directional and somewhat contrasty f/2.5 at 1/160 when I rated my Canon 1D Mark II at ISO 800. I decided to dial in a Kelvin temperature of around 4200K to assure that the window light would move towards a cool “evening blue.” To camera left, my assistant rigged a Bron Mobilite through a Chimera striplight draped with a Lee Filters Full CTO gel. The orange CTO effectively converted the strobe head from 5200° to 3200°K while providing the frame with an inviting counterpoint of warmth.

The strobe proved to be too powerful even at minimum power, but the positioning was good. Lacking a roll of neutral density gel, I asked my assistant to stick his hand in the striplight and hold a couple of his fingers in front of the flash head. After a couple of test pops we determined that the magic number of fingers was four. The shot framed dynamically with the 24mm f/1.4 lens and the short focal length made me confident that I could work sans tripod. After about a dozen frames I yanked the card and quickly ran the RAW files through Capture One.

After a break for lunch, my partner, Maura Dutra, moved the processed TIFF into Photoshop CS for a quick clean-up and some minor tweaks. Launching Painter IX, I did a quick-clone underpainting to block in the hues and values. Working Alla Prima in Painter, I increased detail until the piece seemed done. It’s important to stop when it’s time to stop. The finished image looks great when printed on Photo Impressionism Select Canvas with our Canon ImagePROGRAF W8400 wide-format printer. Digital capture, digital painting and in-house printing on a pigment-based printer—these are fun times, indeed!