Thanks for the feedback everyone. To save space on replying, I won't reply to each post, but thanks to Frank, Lasse, and John.
All the shots were done with a K1000, so I can adjust aperture as needed. I just bought an ME Super also, but I think that I can adjust aperture with that too. I understand about how the background is distracting from the dancers. I have to say that I really love the background and the crowd details and I think that it's important to me to capture that this is a public performance and that people are reacting to what's going on. But I guess I'm not sure how to capture that and still maintain enough detail in the foreground to keep what is happening clear. It seems like the shots work better the larger they are. Is that the mark of a total beginer? I'm definitely going to go back and shoot some more film because I think I'm learning a lot and it's a lot of fun, so I'll try to use all the advice. I may try standing on a pillar there and shooting from above and see how that goes. It's a difficult situation, because it's taking place in a little pit in the middle of a traffic island (kind of like a very miniature apitheatre) and it's totally surrounded by spectators so it's pretty hard to get an uncomplicated background. Again, thanks everyone for the feedback. I'm on vacation, so it's taken me a while to get back to you. Paul message 2 Hi, Paul, I don't disagree with anything Lasse said. I, too found that while the dancers in the foreground were caught doing interesting things, the people in the background distracted from that. You could crop, but even then, you'll still get the odd foot or hand or whatever in the background that one may find distracting. Cropping what you presented to us would help immensely, but even better, think of a few things for next time (not that you'll go shoot street dancers again tomorrow, but you know what I mean, generally, next time you're in a similar situation). Try to keep the background as uncluttered as possible. Given what Lasse and I said, that's a given. Another idea may be to try different angles, like shooting from different elevations, so that you're looking down, and get more pavement in the background. It may be absolutely impossible to shoot without getting spectators in the background, as they may be surrounding performers in a circle. In that case, consider opening up the aperture a bit. Or, a lot. Try shooting as wide as your lens will go. That way you should get the background spectators out of focus due to the narrower depth of field (DOF). Sharp subject with blurry background can be very effective in separating a subject from an objectionable or uninteresting background. HTH. BTW, welcome aboard!! cheers, frank
