Page 31 - Cape-Camera-April-2025

Cape Camera April 2025

Winner PDI – Open (Beginner) Solo traveller by Sagren Pa-
dayachee (24).
Natasha Bird commented: The photographer’s decision to shoot this
image in a portrait format works well as it directs the eye immediately
to the textured and very graphic foreground. The placement of the car
in the top right corner is also a very strong focal point. Overall, an inter-
esting and engaging image.
Sagren Padayachee explains: This was captured in the Tankwa
National Park, which is part of the Succulent Karoo Biome. I used a
10-point focus stack (manually adjusted) on portrait orientation to
render the fine details of the immediate foreground, midground and
background critically sharp.
Canon 6D Mk 1, Sigma 24-70 f/2.8, B+W polarizer. Manual exposure,
30mm, f/9.5, 1/180 sec, ISO 100. Software - Zerene Stacker

Below are the winners in the print Open category with comments by the judge and some authors.

Winner Print – Open (Master)
Pas de Trois SALT ballet by Les-
ley Parolis (25).
Natasha Bird commented: A beau-
tiful moment captured with the
three dancers in perfect harmony
with each other. The variations in the
diagonals of the arms and legs are
most attractive.
A very attractive and well composed
image with great details in the cos-
tumes. Be aware of the stage light-
ing which is inclined to colour the
skin tones in yellows and oranges.
Lesley Parolis explains: This im-
age was taken during a full dress
rehearsal for a ballet by Cape Ballet
Africa performed at the Baxter The-
atre in September last year.
Shooting good ballet images is al-
ways a case of waiting for the right
moment when all the dancers have
beautiful poses, and arms and legs
are correct, balletically speaking.
Lighting can be tricky and some-
times the skin tones don't always Lesley used DXO PureRaw4 for the raw processing and then followed with
render naturally. In these cases, it is further refinement in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. Finally, denoise
useful to use the masking module and mild sharpening was applied using Topaz AI-Denoise.
in Lightroom or Camera Raw and
selectively adjust the tones of the Nikon Z9. 70 to 200mm lens at 70mm. F-stop of 4.0, ISO 6400 and shutter
skin of the people it detects. speed 1/250s on a tripod.

Cape Town Photographic Society 31