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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
This image was shot in my home studio in Gillingham, Kent, England with one of my favourite models to shoot with - Becca. She is not only a dancer, she sings, she plays piano and guitar but she insists that she "is not a model" - her words not mine! After some 20 shoots I do have to disagree!Time
Shot in the afternoon but it could have been shot any time as it was in my studio.Lighting
We wanted an "on stage" look to the image and to give some dimensionality to the shots. The lighting was a stripbox from either side behind Becca to rim light her legs with a large, oval reflector in front just off axis to camera right just to kill the harsh shadows on the legs and the gorgeous black and red tutu.Equipment
If I remember correctly (and without looking at the EXIF data) this was shot on a Canon EOS 450D with an 18-135 zoom, Hand held from just above floor level. The stripbox to camera left was gridded and the stripbox to camera right just had a diffuser screen. Each had a modified Vivitar 283 VP flashgun in. To the front and off-axis camera right was a large oval/rectangular reflector to soften the shadows without loosing dimensionality.Inspiration
Becca was an accomplished ballet dancer (in training) and we wanted to showcase her pointe work. Plus she had just got the black and red tutu with leotard and some new pointe shoes that she had just broken in.Editing
In post I would have colour corrected the image (I always use an Xrite colour checker passport), slightly corrected exposure and contrast.In my camera bag
I have just swapped from Canon to Nikon so I have moved from an EOS 60D to a Nikon 610.My lenses are a Nikkon VR 24-120, a Sigma 105 f2.8, a Nikon 70-200 and lately a Nikon 50mm f1.8. I always carry the colorchecker passport, a Sekonic 308 lightmeter, and various flashguns from Vivitar, Yongnuo, Triopo, Neewer and Pixel with Yongnuo triggers.Feedback
Set up your lights one at a time to achieve the look you are after metering towards each light to get the exposure you are after. If you are shooting en pointe with any ballerina allow enough time at the start for her to warm up her feet, don't keep her en pointe for too long - shoot in short bursts and allow her recovery and stretching time. Pointe work is hard on a ballerina's feet so respect and be mindful of that. Look after your model and she will reward you with captivating images. Oh and sometimes be prepared for several takes of each shot - ballerina's tend to be perfectionists and they will keep repeating the shot until they are happy that it is as close to perfection as they can get. Shooting tethered in the studio is a must so that they can self critique!! Don't get upset with them, for them good enough is not enough! Also don't be upset if they ask you to delete or not to use the non-perfect images - it isn't you, they just didn't nail the pose!