Embarc's Benefit Annual Gala by Joffrey Ballet of Chicago 973B1406
Jan, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This was taken at the Gerald Arpino Black Box Theater in Chicago, IL. Once a year, the dancers of The Joffrey Ballet have the opportunity to choreograph a show to show their families and friends, and I was invited by one of the dancers in the company to take some pictures during rehearsals.Time
Around noon. Stage lightning so not really important.Lighting
One thing about stage/dance/live photography is you gotta be able to think fast and be able to change your settings quickly since the lighting changes all the time as the performers move around. You definitely need a lot of training and the ability of knowing your camera buttons by heart. As I always say, stage photography feels like hunting, in a sense.Equipment
I use my trusty Canon 5D Mark III with the wonderful 70-200mm F2.8 L II. This is my go-to combo that produces 95% of my dance photography. I'be been thinking a lot about switching to a mirrorless system for some time now tho. The 5D's shutter is quite noisy (not good in theaters with spectators) and I could definitely use a more powerful burst mode. But I love how well it manages high iso, so I'm not entirely sold on mirrorless sensors at least until I got a chance to try one before buying.Inspiration
Of all the performers dancing tat day this couple definitely had something special about them so I surely take more pics of them than anybody else. They got this kind of connection that makes everything better just by the way they looked and carry each other. The beauty of dancing.Editing
I do most editing and post on Lightroom. I don't like using presets so I usually create a B&W look for every single show and then tweak some adjustments in every photo. On images like this shot at ISO 16000 you gotta take your time to work the noise reduction. Also I like strong blacks so I play a lot with the Blacks sliders and contrast to make the images pop.In my camera bag
Canon 5D Mark III Canon 6D (backup body) I use to carry my 5D Mark III with the 70-200mm f2.8, the EF35mm f/1.4L USM and 50mm f/1.8. When I'm not on assignment I take my new Fujifilm X-T10 with me but now I'm starting to use it on my pro flow as well.Feedback
You need to know your craft. I know nothing about ballet so when I showed my images to my friend the dancer he quickly detected many flaws on them. The shape of the arms, the position of the feet or the head... Images I thought were great turned out to be worthless on a dancer's eyes. You need to learn your ropes if you want to excel in this kind of photography. This is why I mostly shoot flamenco dancers, because I'm from the south of Spain and was born in that culture. I see many US photographers capturing flamenco images and though the pics are technically good they don't understand the dance itself so they take nice pics but don't know what/when the "decisive moment" is. You have to watch profesional dancers, a lot, and try and shoot as many gigs as you can. Do it for free if necessary, as I did at the beginning (and still do sometimes as training). And don't be scared to fail. I may shoot 1.200-1.800 images on a single show to get 15-20 decent shots if I'm lucky. Keep pushing.
