Dance C&C

[Warren Buchalter]

This was taken at ISO 1600, F/2.2, 1/400 and no crop with 85mm.

Lighting was difficult as some of the dancers when under lights in the ceiling had there skin tones as blown highlights. Would it be better to use EC to -2/3 or -1 and adjust the raw files from there?

Same settings but with a crop

Warren

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hi Warren,

After all you had difficult lighting and probably they wouldn't have let someone add their own. Was this a shoot as a parent or as a job?

First I would not worrt about blown higlights right bnow as that can be deal with to the extent that the people wouldn't worry about it. In general people want top see the group asnd celebrate how well they where choreographed and danced.

What counts is how you managed to time your shots in order to get peak moments and the grace or sense of the pulse of the dance. In the top picture you have done well in this except for lack of width.

One thing I'd try is cloning out the two back figures, in that particular image and even perhaps repairing the lost two legs.

I presume you have many more images. So that's what I'd like to see and I'd look to compositing perhaps or isolating known dancers, or else vignetting to have light on the center.

I have no idea of the choreography, as to whether the girls should be doing the same movement or not? In the second image, the synchrony is off, so one might have to streal from other images to put the timing together so it's matching. It all depends if you have enough images.

Let us know?

Yes this is a tough assignment if you are just there with no devotion of the stage manager and lighting to help you.

A wider lens would be better.

Anyway, there's a lot one can do depending on the end use and expectations.

Asher

 

[Warren Buchalter]

Asher,

Parent/Family Friend.

I could have shot my 50mm 1.8. Flash wasn't allowed. I sat ~5 rows back on the end of the left sided seats. The front row in the middle would have had me looking up at the stage and to close.

I thought it is ok to cut off a limb if it's not on a joint and the the dancer in the middle is the focus of the shot.

Warren

 

[Asher Kelman]

Of course, Warren, there's no law about whole or part limbs!

But if you want to, fixing that is not hard at all. I think no one would have done much differently except if they had a wider fast lens. So do you want rto work on these more. I think it would be fun and productive. Is your daughter in the pictures?

Asher

 

[Warren Buchalter]

The first photo is my favorite due to the action in it. The second shows the exposure issue well. Both don't have any of my daughters in them.

I tried to add a leg onto the dancer on the right. Rotating the selected leg and masking parts of the original and leg layers. Getting it to look natural seems like it would require alot of work in PS. I will have to work on my PS technique. My goal is to take photos that don't need a lot of PS works except for camera raw adjustments.

Warren

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hi Warren,

These project can need help, an here's the place? Why not make available a bunch of them with your daughter in them so we can work on them if you wish?

Asher

 

[Larry Cothren]

Warren,
Your shots look good. What 85mm were you useing the 1.8 or 1.4? I shot my wifes dance studio with my 85mm 1.4 and was able to keep the ISO 800 or below. Dark costumes like the ones in your pictures are a beast to keep from blowing some highlights. You could have dialed in a - ev, like you stated, and kept from blowing the highlights. Some times on the very fair skinned girls, I have found useing spot metering and metering off the face or upper chest/neck if exposed is the only way to keep from blowing them.

My normal settings when shooting competitions and recitals is spot metering, shutter priority set to 200-250 and iso 400 to 800. My f stop on my 85mm 1.4 will stay in the f1.4 to f2.5 range depending on the color of the costumes, lighting, and background. You can stop a dancer in a leap, like in your first picture, with a shutter speed of 250. You may have some hands or foot blur but that is all. If you want shoot me a pm or an email and I'll give you a link to this past years gallery for the studio.

If you have any more questions let me know.

Larry

 

[Asher Kelman]

Warren,

This is such a challenge to photograph dance in a school setting. One has so little control and there are no retakes! I have faced this. It's also similar when photographing plays or concerts.

Sports photographers have this all worked out and coaches are in the loop.

With dance, the photographer is often on his/her own and may even be in the way!

Asher

 

[Warren Buchalter]

Larry,

I used the 85mm 1.8. Av at f/ 2.2 as I was concerned about DOF and dancers being out of focus if I was just a little off. ISO 1600 to get shutter speeds of 250 to 500. The lighting is constantly changing so I used evaluative metering. I never used the spot meter and was afraid of the results if I messed up. As Asher points out no retakes. If I used EC of -1 then I probably could have cut the ISO to 800. That would have given me alot of work in pp to get the exposure up to the correct levels but prevented blown highlights. It seem as if no matter what you do one dancer will be overexposed and the other correct or correct and underexposed.

Do you try and shoot tighter or wider than the pics I posted?

Asher,

Believe it or not I find dance easier than basketball. You can tell when they are going to do a leap as they speed up just before it. Basketball is unpredictable.

Either way I have a lot of fun taking pictures at these events and learning afterward about what I could do in the future to improve my results.


Warren