John Larson, FPSA, GMPSA
December 2025 - Timeout Entertainment
About the Image(s)
This image was shot during a timeout at a Penn State basketball game. The Penn State dance team is known for doing a routine much like the Radio City Rockettes where they line up and do a series of high leg kicks and then they jump up and do the splits. For this shot I caught them just as they were doing their splits and as they go down the row of dancers one by one.
Camera Settings:
Creation Date: 11/03/2025 Camera: Canon, Camera Model: Canon EOS R5, Mk II, Shutter Speed: 1/1600, Aperture f/3.2, ISO 3200, Canon RF70-200mm F2.8 L IS USM lens @ 81 mm
Post processing:, Normal LR adjustments and cropping. Sharpening and denoise using Topaz Photo AI
8 comments posted
I really like the action displayed in this image; it seems like a unique moment of capture in which we can almost see the action going up the line. I think even at 1/1600 shutter speed, the lighting circumstances, etc., resulted in a real lack of sharpness even in the faces, but I would expect at f/3.2 the huddlge of people in the background would be more blurry. For me the odd overall blue tone and the skin tones detract from the impact, as does the slanting horizontal lines. A difficult shooting situation for sure! Posted: 12/12/2025 09:43:01
Afraid I have to agree with Ardeth. It's way too blue. Catching the action was definitely tricky. I like that they are dropping in descending order. A better angle might have been from the other end of the line, but I don't know what was behind them there, so maybe worse than the huddle. Posted: 12/12/2025 11:16:10
You have made this image in an unusual situation, but I am sure you must have done your best to capture this moment. To me, as I move my eyes from left to right along the dance girls, on my monitor the sharpness reduces. F/3.2 has not been able to make the expected blur in the background with this lens. While describing tech specifications we do not mention anything concerning focus.
Blue being the colour of dress of dance girls, dress of some officials and that of stands, it dominates the scene. But overall the image gives an impression of blue colour cast, perhaps the light being reflected from blue objects makes it look like that. Perhaps it being indoor, the controlled light has made such an impact.
From this angle you are able to crop some of the background from top, but a lot many people to extreme left in background are so prominently visible that they draw more of my attention. Posted: 12/12/2025 17:57:20
Blue being the colour of dress of dance girls, dress of some officials and that of stands, it dominates the scene. But overall the image gives an impression of blue colour cast, perhaps the light being reflected from blue objects makes it look like that. Perhaps it being indoor, the controlled light has made such an impact.
From this angle you are able to crop some of the background from top, but a lot many people to extreme left in background are so prominently visible that they draw more of my attention. Posted: 12/12/2025 17:57:20
Regarding your comment about the people on the extreme left. I left them in the image because I wanted to emphasize that this was taken during a timeout in the action and the dancers were performing while the players were getting advice from their coaches. Two stories in one. I also corrected the white balance as you can see under Karen L's comments. Posted: 12/20/2025 12:56:10
John, 2 stories in 1 would not always work. Your picture well-captured the essence of the dancers with synchronized movements, any additional story would be one too many. All the teachings on composition of pictures remind us to cut off what is not necessary. I guess I will follow the same principle with your excellent picture of the dancers. Posted: 12/21/2025 03:57:50
Everything is fine except the white balance. The blue cast is overwhelming and defeats the impact the photo would otherwise have. Frequently this issue can be resolved in software to correct color. Otherwise , the action of the cheerleaders going into their split is very good. Posted: 12/17/2025 20:22:46
Regarding your comment about white balance. I changed the Color Balance back to what the camera used or Auto. Some people who have taken images in this gym have complained that the color is not right. So of course I tried to compensate to what I thought looked right. What you see in this image is what the camera thinks is right. Which one do you prefer? Posted: 12/20/2025 12:53:20
While this one looks better for color, I'd still drop the yellows a bit while keeping the warm tones. Just my opinion. Posted: 12/20/2025 14:50:42