Carol Watson, QPSA  

Tango in the Light by Carol Watson, QPSA

July 2025 - Tango in the Light

July 2025 - Carol Watson, QPSA

Original

About the Image(s)

This image was taken on a dance themed photoshoot at the beginning of June. This couple are fantastic tango dancers, and I have photographed them before, a couple of years ago. The image was taken in natural light with my Olympus OM-1 with a 12-40mm lens. The camera settings were manual focus, f4, 1/30s, ISO 400. The following changes were made in Photoshop after initial processing in Camera Raw.

- Replaced the male dancers head as he was looking down in the original
- Replaced the background by adding a solid fill layer, using a colour from the wall, and masked this off the floor. I then added a photo of a studio backdrop and a texture layer, both in multiply blend mode and adjusted the opacities of these layers.
- Added some light rays, using a brush I created from an image of a waterfall.
- Added a vignette using a curves layer.
- Converted to mono using Nik Silver Efex.
- Reduced noise using Topaz DeNoise.
- Finally finished the image with a fine stroke line.

5 comments posted

Denise McKay   Denise McKay
Your photoshop skills are shining bright, as usual. I would have never guessed his head was replaced. The background you've chosen suits this image well making one feel like they are dancing in an old world ballroom. The added light rays are also very realistic to my eyes, coming in from the correct direction for the highlights and shadows. Really nicely done!

The one thing that bothers me is that the female is looking directly at you while the male's eyes are looking to the side somewhat. For me, that makes it feel like he's a little disconnected from the moment. It reduces the drama a bit for me.
  Posted: 07/12/2025 15:37:13
Rita Johnston   Rita Johnston
Carol, this is a Wow photo. You did a wonderful job of making it more dynamic. I thought the male looking down was appropriate, and I would have left it like that. Really beautiful what you have done.   Posted: 07/16/2025 23:47:55
Georgianne Giese   Georgianne Giese
Carol, this is stunning. You did an amazing job on replacing that cluttered background. The texture is beautiful. The image itself is very well done, very alluring and it tells a lovely story.
You are fortunate to have had an image of the male dancer with his eyes looking toward the camera! Good job on replacing the original. I once took a family reunion picture of 19 people. All but one (one of my daughter-in-laws) were looking at the camera. But I took several pictures and she was looking at the camera in some. So I copied her head and placed it in the initial image, just as you did! It's a handy technique for anyone to remember who is taking group images! But it requires several shots of the same scene.   Posted: 07/19/2025 00:33:11
Georgianne Giese   Georgianne Giese
I forgot to mention that the conversion to mono was perfect for this scene, in my opinion!   Posted: 07/19/2025 00:34:19
Jan Handman   Jan Handman
Lovely image Carol. I love the new background you added, much more chic. I think the B/W treatment was the right move, but I sort of feel it could use brightening a bit and increasing the contrast perhaps. Do these dancers usually pose in set positions, or do they sometimes dance so the photographers can get action shots too?   Posted: 07/19/2025 22:52:17

 

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