Prom Photos

Tim Kamppinen

I recently shot a prom at a local high school. It's a very small school, which meant that I was able to get all the formals done early on and then go have some fun shooting the dance. Here are the photos that I put up in my blog post:

1
<a href="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Prom-2010-Formals/12248573_ZkYAh#873027471_kXFFY-A-LB"><img src="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Prom-2010-Formals/PromFormals005/873027471_kXFFY-L-1.jpg&quot; /></a>

2
<a href="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Prom-2010-Formals/12248573_ZkYAh#873034990_ebKLw-A-LB"><img src="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Prom-2010-Formals/PromFormals039/873034990_ebKLw-L-1.jpg&quot; /></a>

3
<a href="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Dance/12248718_xDdEV#873068687_ixwkx-A-LB"><img src="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Dance/PromDancing065/873068687_ixwkx-L-1.jpg&quot; /></a>

4
<a href="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Dance/12248718_xDdEV#873076338_ypNuf-A-LB"><img src="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Dance/PromDancing082/873076338_ypNuf-L-1.jpg&quot; /></a>

5
<a href="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Dance/12248718_xDdEV#873051908_yXFQ6-A-LB"><img src="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Dance/PromDancing021/873051908_yXFQ6-L-1.jpg&quot; /></a>

6
<a href="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Dance/12248718_xDdEV#873069881_eFrWD-A-LB"><img src="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Dance/PromDancing068/873069881_eFrWD-L-1.jpg&quot; /></a>

7
<a href="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Dance/12248718_xDdEV#873056062_eCWDd-A-LB"><img src="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Dance/PromDancing030/873056062_eCWDd-L-1.jpg&quot; /></a>

8
<a href="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Dance/12248718_xDdEV#873077953_dTqCB-A-LB"><img src="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Dance/PromDancing087/873077953_dTqCB-L-1.jpg&quot; /></a>

9
<a href="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Dance/12248718_xDdEV#873077586_Fq2Mw-A-LB"><img src="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Dance/PromDancing086/873077586_Fq2Mw-L-1.jpg&quot; /></a>

10
<a href="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Dance/12248718_xDdEV#873080299_nbWmq-A-LB"><img src="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Dance/PromDancing093/873080299_nbWmq-L-1.jpg&quot; /></a>

11
<a href="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Dance/12248718_xDdEV#873086321_qmnyE-A-LB"><img src="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Dance/PromDancing120/873086321_qmnyE-L-1.jpg&quot; /></a>

12
<a href="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Dance/12248718_xDdEV#873088263_zcEBx-A-LB"><img src="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Dance/PromDancing129/873088263_zcEBx-L-1.jpg&quot; /></a>

13
<a href="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Dance/12248718_xDdEV#873090683_MxKEB-A-LB"><img src="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Dance/PromDancing138/873090683_MxKEB-L-1.jpg&quot; /></a>

14
<a href="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Dance/12248718_xDdEV#873094235_KCuFH-A-LB"><img src="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Dance/PromDancing151/873094235_KCuFH-L-1.jpg&quot; /></a>

15
<a href="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Dance/12248718_xDdEV#873093223_rgcEu-A-LB"><img src="http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010/Dance/PromDancing147/873093223_rgcEu-L-1.jpg&quot; /></a>

The formals were done in a hallway. I set up a roll of gray seamless with a black sheet hanging from it (to make sure it went black) and hung a large number of christmas lights from it for the background. I had the couples stand maybe 30 ft or so in front of it so that I would get nice bokeh circles and shot wide open with my 80-200 2.8. Key light was an sb900 through a 28x40" gridded softbox camera right and up high, feathered toward the face to get a nice falloff towards their legs. An sb600 in an 18" softbox was hung from the drop ceiling in the hallway for a hair light.

For the dance, I had one SB28 clamped to an existing wall fixture and aimed at the opposite side of the dance floor for a rim light. I also used an SB900 on camera in TTL mode for fill, both direct and bounced for different looks. Bouncing usually decreased the falloff to the point that the background was too bright and the shots became less dramatic, so I only bounced for some of the tighter shots and ones where direct flash would have given me nasty side shadows (shooting vertically). I dragged the shutter on some of them to get some more color from the ambient as well as a bit of motion blur. I often placed the rim light in the shot deliberately to get starbursts and flare as a graphical element. I know some people view these as "ruined shots" but I love the way it looks.

This was actually good practice for weddings and I am definitely going to do more of this the next time I shoot a reception. I've played around with it before but I feel like I'm just now starting to get to the point where it's not so much of a crap shoot and I know I'll be able to get some good shots.

You can see all the photos here if you want:

http://www.timkphotography.com/Galleries/E-TC-Prom-2010

Thanks for looking!

adbsgicom

Nice use of the video lights for rim lights. There are some really nice shots in there. Love the energy captured in that third shot. Nice moment captured in #9 as well. Adding numbers makes it easier to comment when you have a lot of images.

Tim Kamppinen

adbsgicom wrote: »

Nice use of the video lights for rim lights. There are some really nice shots in there. Love the energy captured in that third shot. Nice moment captured in #9 as well. Adding numbers makes it easier to comment when you have a lot of images.

Thanks, I added numbers... I always forget to do that. No video lights here, though. The rim light was an Nikon SB28 speedlight clamped to a wall fixture.