DANCING EQUALS FREEDOM, EXPRESSION, JOY AND MOVEMENT.
For this series of images it was a deliberate decision to shoot outdoors. Whenever I talk to the dancers about what dance represents for them they always tell me it’s about freedom, expression, joy, movement, feeling alive and in the moment – for me that fits with being outside.
So why dancers? Because dancers are simply fantastic in front of the camera. The dancers I have worked with have all been dedicated passionate people who train hard. This translates into someone who can consistently hit their mark over and over again, who can take direction and have no problem performing in front of people.
A LITTLE BEHIND THE SCENE ACTION
I always appreciate behind the scene (BTS) images but if you are not interested in the technical hardware I recommend you skip ahead to the next section.
Image 1: Here you can see our lovely dancer being a great sport as I pour powder all over her (including in her hair), our lovely make-up artist who is propping up on of our strobes and yours truly. The strobe you can see is the Paul C Buff – Einstein E640 with a 47” octabox. What you can’t see is another Paul C Buff – Einstein E640 with a 22” silver beauty dish, which is hidden behind the tree on the right. These lights are responsible for producing the gorgeous light you see in Wood Fairy and Dust Dance below.
Image 2: Here it is slightly harder to see but we have one of the Paul C Buff – Einstein E640 with a general reflector and we are using the sun as a second light source. The ground is a lot more even here so a simple camera bag does the trick for propping up the light stand. The results of this lighting set up can be seen in Wide Brown Land below.
Image 3: It’s always important to remember that your dancer or model or even wedding party can’t see what you can see. Showing them, even if on the back of the camera, can provide a great confidence boost for them and is a great way of getting more energy into a shoot. Just remember to always keep it positive or you’ll have the opposite effect.
WOOD FAIRY
So how was that first image created? Carissa (our beautiful dancer) is amazingly athletic and puts all of herself into each leap. However, for this image I wanted it to look like she was floating effortlessly, and so she needed just a little assistance. In this case that meant giving her a milk crate to stand on. With the milk crate Carissa only needed to produce a small jump, which gave her the ability to think about other things like feet and arm placement, whipping her hair and dress around and not falling off the crate (which was on a backward slope).
With my camera on the tripod I made sure to capture the scene without my dancer or milk crate – for this image the only section I really care about is the area where the milk crate will be visible.
Now with a little help of photoshop I am able to remove the milk crate from the image and with a few other minor adjustments create the final image.
DUST DANCE
OK I’ve jumped to the third image but that is because it is my favourite. It expresses all the reasons why I love to photograph dancers!
I’ve seen plenty of dancer powder / flour / dust photos taken in a studio or under studio conditions, but I have not seen any taken outdoors (having said that I will probably start seeing lots or be told of lots – bring it on, I love to see new works). Going into the shoot I reflected on that fact for a moment and wondered if there was a really obvious reason that I was about to discover. Deciding to ignore those creeping doubts we pushed on and started covering out dancer in talcum powder (also known as baby powder).
For these types of images a typical technique is to cover your dancer in the power and when they move it scatters and is picked up by the strobes. You can see me doing this in the first BTS image above. The results were OK, but not what we were going for. With a little experimentation we found that giving our dancer a light dusting but also spraying the talcum powder into the air produced a much stronger image. I think our use of talcum powder (rather than flour) benefited us here, as it is a light powder so floated and hung in the air well. The first image below is another silly BTS image showing this technique (but also showing the fun we have on our shoots).
What makes this image for me is the energy, movement and excitement that is given off by Carissa. That is why your choice in dancer is really important. All the technique in the world won’t make up for a flat move with no energy.
WIDE BROWN LAND
Where did the name come from? Well the two objects framing the image are part of the words ‘Wide Brown Land’, a sculpture at the National Arboretum. It is meant to be read from a distance and this is from behind so it’s ok if you can’t make it out.
Similar to the image above for me this image is about energy and movement. The letters framing the image provide a space for Carissa to float in, while the clouds provide a stunning backdrop. The movement in her feet paired with the implied movement of dress and hair along with the wider crop provide the energy.
I’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU
If your’e a passionate dancer I’d love to hear from you. Send me a message, tell me about yourself and about your dance. Perhaps we can organise a shoot?
