Dance performance photography tips?

raj-123 · Post by **raj-123** » 07 Apr 2009, 07:08

Hi ,
I am going to be photographing a Bharatanatyam arangetram (not the main photographer, but asked to shoot as a backup). If anyone has taken photographs for a dance performance, please share tips. I intend to use a Nikon D90 with the Nikkor 18-200 lens. No flash. Handholding. Do people use aperture priority? Spot metering? I am not sure if the matrix or evaluative metering will work fine on indoor theater (live performance)

any help appreciated..

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 07 Apr 2009, 07:17

I will leave the technical aspects to the others, but would strongly recommend going to the dress rehearsal, so that you can make notes on when you'll have the best options for the shots - usually during a pose. Knowing that before hand and being ready for those moments will probably be one of the most important things.

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 07 Apr 2009, 11:32

I am not that familiar with still photography but have done several videos for dance in the past. It is very important that the aperture (iris) is closed a little otherwise the bright lights hitting the shiny parts of the dancer's costume can give the dancer's face a washed out look.

Also, you can use a sports mode in the camera which will allow you to take photos rapidly and minimise the blur. A good idea is to take test shots before hand using different camera modes.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 07 Apr 2009, 12:18

>It is very important that the aperture (iris) is closed a little otherwise the bright lights hitting the shiny parts of the dancer's costume can give the dancer's face a washed out look.

Ah.. that is what it is. A few minutes of video I shot a couple of times had that problem. Thanks for the tip, Mohan.

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 07 Apr 2009, 13:46

(Mr)VK - this is a manual setting and some of the cheaper video camcorders may not have iris functionality

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 08 Apr 2009, 00:00

Mohan, good to know. It was someone else's camcorder and I will check next time if it has that irs facility ( I sort of doubt it now ). So, how does closing the iris a bit improve this situation? Longer exposure time?

(Of course, photos of dance and music performances taken even with top of the line cell phone cameras suffer from such problems so much that one can not even recognize who the artist is.)

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 08 Apr 2009, 05:52

vasanthakokilam wrote:So, how does closing the iris a bit improve this situation? Longer exposure time?

(Of course, photos of dance and music performances taken even with top of the line cell phone cameras suffer from such problems so much that one can not even recognize who the artist is.)

Just like the iris in an eye, a smaller or closed camera iris lets less light into the lens.

Cell phone cameras are rather rubbish for any kind of serious photography. They are good for taking the odd shot of your kids playing in the park.

Shivadasan · Post by **Shivadasan** » 08 Apr 2009, 08:49

Dear Raj

Taking good photographs during a recital is a very daunting task. many missed chances and spoiled photos. Dancers are very capable of giving poses and you can obtain the best photos either during a dress rehearsal or doing the photo session an hour before than the scheduled time, on the stage itself. You can also have the best of lighting according to your choice.
When you take the photos during the recital you can try to use the multiple exposure choice which will cover an entire dance movement. It is most likely that some of the poses would be be exactly as they should be. Wish you luck.
Shivadasan

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 08 Apr 2009, 11:26

Mohan. Thanks, good explanation, makese sense. I agree about the cellphone camera. It is silly of me to mention it in this context. It was just a side bar, I have a 2 Mp cell phone camera, it takes 'decent' pictures in other cases, but under bright artificial lights it is just horrendously bad.

raj-123 · Post by **raj-123** » 09 Apr 2009, 06:17

Thanks all for the suggestions, much appreciated.

tamilc · Post by **tamilc** » 09 Apr 2009, 17:17

If you are not using flash, you will have to adjust the aperture quickly as the lighting is likely to fluctuate significantly.
Put your camera in the continuous shooting mode (4.5 frames-per-second).
Shutter Speed should be fixed (the dancer sometimes will move very fast). Maybe 1/100 sec would be the max.
Most often your Autofocus System will be too slow, so better put your Focus Modes in "Manual with electronic rangefinder". Be in the auditorium 30 minutes before the start of the show, ask someone to walk on the stage or use the floor.
Since the exposure is going to be very short, try to stand pretty close to the stage, to get max light.
Metering works quite slow, you would have problems with it, and the spotlights (they don't normally use all floodlights) will render it pretty useless. If the spotlights are multi-colored, how will you set the White Balance? Maximum White Balance Bracketing would be best.
Adjust your ISO according to the lighting. Exposure Bracketing should help a bit.
Try to stand in the center of the auditorium, as the best shots are taken from a max 15* angle off the central axis.
Often the dancer will make unpredictable movements and jump out of the viewfinder.

So keep the dancer (from toes to the top of the raised hands) in the central 70% of the viewfinder.