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Dance Photography
There are various photographers on MM who specialize in dance photography, or do it as a sideline. Professional, or for fun. Thought it might be interesting to share techniques, war stories, and people whose work we admire. To get great dance photos, start with a great dancer. Jun 24 15 09:13 am Link Herman Surkis wrote: True. Start with a great dancer. Then add beautiful light. Jun 24 15 06:49 pm Link Also, don't rely on your motor drive. Instead, learn to press the shutter at the precise moment to capture the peak of action; the moment of maximum extension. Your dancers will love you for it.  Jun 24 15 06:55 pm Link I was about to pull the plug on this, since it appeared that dance photographers were not interested. Check my avi.  Tested to make sure the lighting would look good. First and only frame. Virtually full frame (a little off the top) And be lucky. 86" PlM at right rear facing forward. 60" Octo grided at left also facing front. 2'x4' Softbox as front fill, just right of the camera. Hairlight speedlight acting as top rim light 2 flags at camera to avoid flare. Black background fabric did need cleaning up. Space is too small to get that much control, but minimal work. Floor needed the same work as the background. Spotlight effect was there, it just needed work to look good. Post was 5-10 minute total. Jun 24 15 07:00 pm Link Herman, that is a beautiful shot with Andrea. Love to see more. Jun 25 15 02:02 am Link Jasper Johal Photo wrote: Reply got eaten by a mis-click. Jun 25 15 07:51 am Link Thanks. As are yours. Where are the other MM dance photographers? I would gladly post others, but on a free account it will not let me show outside images. So the best I can do is link to the dancer or my FB page. There will be a total of 7 from the days shoot. In my case I find that I am imitating others work, but at least trying to give it a twist. With all the great dance photography that has been done, it is hard to come up with something completely original. But that is also true of dance itself. Pretty much true of all photography as well. We just need to enjoy getting the results that we do. It may not be original in the world of photography, but it is original to me. Some dancers are very picky. I have had dancers tell me to not post because a finger was just not quite right. My arrangement with Andrea was simple. She does not get to see any that I do not think are good images (although there are a couple that are just ok, but it is something she wanted), and I will not post anything if she does not like the positioning. We kind of each have a veto on the other. Pretty much the only way to work with dancers it seems, and especially with Andrea. My link. https://www.facebook.com/hermansurkis.p … =bookmarks And links to some great dance photographers. I have not at this point added any MM photographers, so as not to insult anybody I might forget. However if others want to add... http://geneschiavone.com/ http://www.loisgreenfield.com/ http://www.richardcalmes.com/ http://www.douglaskirkland.com/xx0cpc8r … 7eehinepk5 Jun 25 15 08:14 am Link Jun 25 15 10:28 am Link My dance shots have been limited to my granddaughters recitals and that is a challenge with the lighting and the speed they are going. It is like shooting in a dim Gym. I love the dancer shots and they are a great subject to shoot. I will have to look at trying my hand at that. Jun 25 15 11:20 am Link A couple of mine. The second one is not a "dancer" but more a dancing model. I have lots of dance photography, mostly shot at performances. Not much posted currently, I'll dig around and post more later. Here are a couple of tips for live work. Shoot the dress rehearsal!!! You have more options as to where you can position. Get above the stage and note the locations of the tiny tape "X" positions or white markers. These are the places where peak action will occur. The dancers need to keep close track of these and be on exact location. That is one of the main reasons why flash photography is not allowed, you could blind somebody who needs to be in a precise location when they are catching a jumping dancer. Listen to the music. If you know in advance what the piece will be, review it. Peak action will occur during peaks in the music. Now you know where the peak action is going to occur and when. Much easier to get good shots if you know these things.   Jun 25 15 12:40 pm Link    Jun 25 15 03:43 pm Link I admire all off you i wish I have chance to do some dance shots but for now i enjoy you guys images grate job to all Jun 28 15 06:20 pm Link Herman Surkis wrote: +1 QFT Jun 29 15 06:09 am Link Thanks for the thread and sharing your work! I happen to live in the city full of amazing professional dancers, so I shoot them a lot and work with a couple newer dance companies. I view shooting dance as trying to catch the peak action in a frame rather than posing the dancers (rarely works for me). And I don't think anyone mentioned it's extremely useful to learn about dance if you are shooting it. Know the difference in styles, learn the basic ballet terms (which loosely apply to a lot of modern styles, too), watch some dance productions and get the flow and the mood of different styles. There's never enough to explore. And in the very least, it helps give better direction to the dancers. Hope this helps.   Jun 29 15 01:31 pm Link Maria Panina wrote: Agree, but it does help if you remember what you learned. Does not always work so well for me. Jun 29 15 04:52 pm Link Its just like any other sport, to get great shots you have to know the sport Jun 29 15 05:18 pm Link I finally got some more work up.    Jul 25 15 01:56 pm Link Thought it had died. Trouble with dance photography is that a lot of the lighting will be similar, and it is too easy to get into a formula. It is simlply that when trying to capture motion in the studio, there is only so much you can do. Not saying you cannot be creative, I have dance as 'film noir' etc. But it feels like there are more restrictions. I tend to default as a starter to a 4 light setup. 2 kickers, which if large enough and wrap enough become mains. 1 fill (although actually the fill here could be called the main) 1 hair possibly 2 background I tend to meter the kickers (side mains) to just hold detail in the highlights. Fill is about 1 stop below those. Tweak to taste. I have been known to turn off the fill and let the middle go dead black. However the kicker with dancers is getting something that they will like. They post the most amazing crap of each other and themselves on FB, but a dance photo... If the index finger is not just so, then they will bitch and moan. And god forbid you have 2 dancers together, the bitching and moaning has just quintupled. Jul 25 15 02:45 pm Link Here are some of mine, from the mid-1980s:   I realize that nearly all dance photographs you see freeze the action, either with strobes or quick shutter speeds. Me, being contrary, decided to try to go in the opposite direction to see what it looked like. My technique: ... Community theater stage, with black velvet curtains all the way in the back, ... The back bank of lights (high off the ground) provided some back lighting. ... Camera positioned low, just off the stage floor. ... Calculated exposure for 1/4th of a second, but... ... Exposure lasted up to 90 seconds. ... Direction to dancers -- keep moving & don't spend too much time in one spot. ... In a couple of shots, I had the dancers hold flashlights, which they swung around. Hint: give them two flashlights, one in each hand -- otherwise, they'll be off-balanced. ... I would put something on the stage floor at either end, and asked to dancers to move in between. ... For the first image, I had the dancer dance "over there" and then lie down "over there" at the end. Jul 25 15 02:54 pm Link Jasper Johal Photo wrote: QFT Jul 25 15 03:04 pm Link Herman Surkis wrote: Lol, I know exactly before I've even landed from a jump what I've done 'wrong'! Jul 25 15 03:27 pm Link Dancers. My favorite subjects and the bane of my life. Another interesting thing with the long exposure shots is to fire a strobe during the long exposure. I have tried front and rear curtain sync. and each has its own flavour. But manually firing the strobe part way through the movement is great, when it works. Jul 25 15 04:17 pm Link Looknsee Photography wrote: Gorgeous when it works (and these did). Shows the feel of the dance. I keep trying and am rarely happy with the results. Jul 25 15 04:24 pm Link Herman Surkis wrote: Looknsee's lovely photos are an example of the one of the differences between film and digital. Digital does not "smear" in the same way that film does. I prefer the look of film for that style of photography, have some shots like that somewhere but not as nice as the ones posted. I tried to do the same thing with digital and water birds taking off and did not like the look of the smear as much at all. Jul 25 15 04:47 pm Link Herman Surkis wrote: I have yet to shoot dance, but I have shot a lot of extreme sports...I also found I got my best shots when I set up the camera on a tripod and used a remote trigger. Way more hits this way. Jul 29 15 12:47 am Link 1. Choreograph and rehearse 2. Lots of space 3. Flat solid surface 4. 100mm lens, minimum 5. Strobes (note drama was not listed above)  Jul 29 15 01:28 am Link It doesn't have to be complicated...      Jul 29 15 04:35 am Link Marcio Faustino wrote: Cool. Jul 29 15 05:26 pm Link |
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