One of the biggest challenges of photographing dancers at a street festival is dealing with the other spectators in the background. Invariably, the most visually distracting people end up in my field of view. The guy with the loud, plaid shorts, or the woman with the neon green t-shirt always seems to end up directly behind the dancers I want to photograph. And I’m sure someone directly across from me is wishing the little guy with the beard and the big lens would get out of his field of view.

With image editing, we can minimize the distractions by darkening or blurring the background. That’s what I had to do on this photo. (Click on photo to enlarge.) It’s tedious work sometimes, but it’s the only way I know to salvage these photos from street festivals.