Candids

Often, the best photos from a competition don't come on stage. In the tense minutes leading up to the stage call, the performers are usually very nervous. This is a great time to get them all together, pose them on a stairway or other great vista, and shoot some group pictures. Get a few silly shots to help loosen up the team. Also, getting close up poses or candids produces some wonderful pictures. If you're bored, or the instructors want you out of their hair for a while, take a walk around the venue and look for nice secluded spots with interesting features or lighting. Then, when the kids have a couple of minutes, you can pose them and capture some great moments.

Retouching Example

Before: This picture was a mess!  Overexposure, oversaturation and too much distracting stuff like the back wall and the pizza boxes, didn't do justice to these kids' attitudes and expressions.

After: I "airbrushed" out the wall, the soda cup and the top of the pizza box.  I cut the contrast and gave the picture a "Sepia" look by dropping the color intensity.  Now it looks like a picture from the 30's!

On to Troubleshooting