Johanna Loc: Albuquerque, NM

I did a photo shoot of a belly dance show in a restaurant room. Do you think that there was poor lighting? And some daylight also streamed in from the front windows. I used my trusty D850 with a f:2.8 zoom lens. I set for manual f:2.8 and 160th shutter. I let the ISO go where it wants. It works for me!

I shot over 660 exposures! Initial selection was 146 to look at for editing and ended up with 60 prints for posting to the group. Body position and facial expression are my main criteria for initial selection.

The attached 4 pictures show my editing steps. I use ACDSee as the editor for selection, tilt correction, cropping and exposure followed up by Topaz denoise and sharping. As posted, you may not see some change in the Topaz treatments, but it is there!

In looking at the preview, I am disappointed in that the differences I see in the original file do not show up here!

Dan5000 Loc: New Hampshire

I don't see that the lighting was a problem.

Boris77

You cropped away the picture!? no trouble with the lighting.
Boris

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

I don't see any issues. But, you've provided only thumbnails. For a detailed analysis, we'd need the image files attached for download and pixel-level inspection. It does seem the images are center-focused, on the dancer's waist, rather then her eyes. If accurate, that might be one area / focus technique to consider in similar future situations, especially when shooting wide-open with a wide-aperture lens.

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

Wonderful, even with what you DON'T see
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

jcboy3

The problem with shooting at f/2.8 is the DOF is very shallow. In this case, the dancer's hand is sharp but her face is soft. Eye focus is an advantage, using a single focus point for DSLR or actual eye focus for mirrorless.

riderxlx Loc: DFW area Texas

I agree, they look good to me.
Bruce

RodeoMan Loc: St Joseph, Missouri

What I appreciate is how excited and interested the folks behind the dancer appear. Thanks for sharing these images. This must have been a fun assignment.

Johanna Loc: Albuquerque, NM

It was fun and work also. Shot 660 exposures and ended up with 60 to publish! By the time I reduced file size for Facebook all the fine detail I had was lost. Should anyone want a copy it could be printed as a 8x10 or larger!