Does Dancing count?

Ann McRae

I have been asked to provide coverage and on site printing for Highland dance provincial championships. The folks that have hired me are great - really helpful and accommodating. I asked to be allowed to have some practice shooting, and so spent a few hours this past weekend at a local competition.

It is an interesting process. Day 1 of the competition is in a gym, 3 judges, 3 'stages' and 3 dancers per stage per time. They have 5 set dances. The dances are quite repetitive so there seems to be lots of opportunity to get a shot of each dancer. One rule, I must stay behind the judges. One problem, well okay many... the lighting is gym lighting. Gold hardwood floors so lots of yellow cast. It is a gym, so background clutter is outrageous.





ugly background:



I was able to shoot ISO 1000 to 1250, with the 135mmf2 at 1/200, f3.5 for these.

Sunday is in a theater with stage lighting. 3 dancers at a time. I have never shot stage lighting before. I tried the 70 - 200 f2.8, the 135mmf2.0 and the 85mmf1.8.

This one is f2.8, 1/200, ISO 1250 @ 115mm:




The sword dance is incredibly difficult:



That shot is f2.5, 1/320, ISO 1000, with the 85mm.


The 135 gave the best results, I think, but it was a tad too long for the sword dance from where I was able to shoot from:



f2.5, 1/320, ISO 1000.

Now I whittled 1300 shots down to 100 that I thought were really good and another couple hundred acceptable. My problem is that at the competition, I will be shooting and having someone else (likely my dh and kid) running the files through LR2 for culling, editing and printing. I need to make sure that the input is really, really good so we do not have a 'garbage in garbage out situation'. So I need to find the sweet spot and proper shooting technique now. Any thoughts on this?

Many of my discards are discards because they have quite a horrid glow from the stage lights. I do not want to be fixing that on site. Many others are just plain soft.

So, feedback, tips and tricks greatly appreciated.

ann

aktse

I think dancing counts!

And yes --- Ugly background!

For the few times that I have shot dance, I think I have to agree with you. I find my 135mm as my lens of choice and I find that I carry my 50mm on my second body for wider shots.

For highland game dancing, I suggest you check out the galleries of Sean Martin's (donek) galleries. He might be able to provide more insight!

divamum

Thanks for the lens comparisons, Ann - much appreciated!

I think you did a nice job in challenging conditions - I'm sure the participants will be very happy with these shots! (And I have to say that you were nailing the exposures in that high contrast environment - well done! )

David Evertsen

Very nice, I can appreciate hard work at taking dance photos. I usually sit in the back so my 200 is the rule but it looks like from your down front vantage point you have it figured out with no problem . I do set my my WB to tungsten at theatres to get rid of the orange glow on the skin tones, see if that helps some in this theater. Have fun!! Dance is my favorite event to shoot without a doubt...

Ann McRae

april, diva, dave

Thanks for stopping by. Dave, thanks for the tip re: tungsten white balance. I have arranged another practice shoot, in the same theater as the competition, and will give that a try.

So far the feedback from the organizer is GREAT! She really likes my top 100 - now I need to sort out how to get a success rate of >1/13.


ann