The pointe of balance
The grace and style of a modern ballerina
The grace and style of a modern ballerina
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Sep, 2015Views
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Staff Winter Selection 2015
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Behind The Lens
Location
No where glamorous! This image was created in a local church hall during a shoot with a local dance school. I was looking to expand my portfolio and invited a number of dance schools to a free session to photograph their dancers in exchange for me providing them with some prints of their favourite images. There were five dancers of varying ages in this session and we captured some amazing images showcasing their strength & flexibility.Time
The time of the shoot is somewhat as the image it lit purely by studio strobes!... But, if you’re interested, it was shot around lunchtime – I remember this well as I didn’t take any food with me and was starving hungry throughout!Lighting
This image, and most of my dance portraits use a simple 2 light setup. On either side of the dancers was a studio strobe fired into a Paul C Buff 86” PLM. Although the PLMs look very much like umbrellas, their parabolic design creates a highly focussed beam of light which is great for minimising spill on to the black cloth backdrop. The PLM inner silver surfaces produce a specular and contrasty which is also relatively soft due to their size. The PLMs are my go-to dance lighting modifier and are relatively cheap for what they can do.Equipment
Nikon D7000 Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G Hahnel Combi TF radio trigger 3m x 3m background stands with 3m 2 off T-One QT600s into 86” Paul C Buff Extreme Silver PLMs positioned on either side of the dancer (approx. 2m away and a little higher than the dancer).Inspiration
The grace & beauty of dancers is generally observed as a whole performance. However, these performances are made up from thousands of individual moments, all of which have their own beauty. Flash photography allows us to freeze these moments in time and preserve them forever. It also allows us to see moments that we are able to see clearly with the naked eye. This pose was one of the less dynamic ones we ran through (and was the dancer’s idea) and was held for a couple of seconds. This was sufficient time to allow me to compose, focus and capture.Editing
Due to the natural pool of light created by the PLMs there was only basic retouching required for this image. There was a little cleaning, darkening the corners of the pool of light on the floor and removal of a hand holding the top edge of the tutu upright! (The tutu was lacking rigidity to stand up vertically by itself so required holding!), contrast boost and slight desaturating. I was careful to ensure that the RAW images were no over-exposed, particularly on the white dress so that no detail was lost. Other than that this image is as seen at the time of capture!In my camera bag
I’m a Nikon shooter (although I used to shoot with Canon!) and have a range of wide aperture prime lenses as well as two f/2.8 zooms for when I need flexibility. Here’s my current kit list: 2 x Nikon D7000 (1 with battery grip) Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 G Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G Nikkor 85mm f/1.8D Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 Micro Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 Lensbaby Composer Pro 6 x speedlights (2 off Nikon & 4 off Yongnuo YN560) 3 x T-One QT600 studio strobes Hahnel Combi TF triggers PocketWizard MiniTT1 & FlexTT5 triggers Numerous lightstands, clamps, flags, diffusers, reflectors etc and a box of random bits!Feedback
I think that simple lighting and strong poses work best in dance photography. Therefore, to start off with stick with one key light (the bigger and softer the better) on one side & slightly higher than the subject, with a fill/hair light on the opposite and slightly behind the subject. With the lights in position against a neutral backdrop it’s a case of finding a capable dancer and letting them experiment with as many movements, leaps etc as possible and you’ll be sure to create some gorgeous dance portraits! It’s all about experimentation, there are no hard and fast rules… so go have fun & get creating!
