Degas, Edgar. The Dancing Lesson, 1880. Williamstown: MA, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.
In examining the effect of photography on Degas’ painting, it is important to begin with his works prior to the use of photography: doing so makes it clear that photography did not contribute to the detail of Degas’ paintings, because these early paintings were already incredibly true to real life. This level of accuracy was achieved through the numerous studies Degas did of his subjects. Degas sketched dancers and then used these sketches to compose great works of art in his studio. This can be seen in his painting The Dancing Lesson, executed between 1883 and1885. It is a composition of seven dancers, each in a different position. 
Four dancers practice their poses in the background while three others stretch on a bench in the foreground. The second dancer from the right, seated on the bench, with her leg outstretched is the most detailed, and her posture draws the viewer’s attention the most. Degas has frozen her movements in a single moment. She leans slightly forward, points her toe and pulls down her costume with her hands. Degas has captured her position at a rather unstable moment. It is unlikely that this dancer would have sat for a long period of time in this manner, but Degas has managed to portray this posture in a very lifelike manner. Her pose appears perfectly comfortable and natural. In order to capture this pose with such accurate resemblance to real life, Degas executed several sketches of this model, such as Dancer Pulling up her Tights. He combined several aspects of different sketches to create the effect of this dancer being frozen in time, without appearing stuck in an awkward position. Hundreds of sketches were done to duplicate the postures of all of the dancers on the canvas (Kendall 111). By observing his subject for such extended periods of time and executing so many sketches, Degas was able to record their postures not only on paper, but in his memory as well. This careful observation and practice is what allowed Degas to be so successful in creating magnificent, lifelike scenes of dancers at any time, before, during, and after performances.