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Dance School photo Shoot Help
Looks like I will have an opportunity to shoot a dance school. I will be visiting the school tomorrow and get more details, but here is what I have so far.
This is a Chinese dance school and the ages can range from toddler to adult. I believe the photos will be primarily of the kids. For the past two years the owner has extracted the dancers from the photos and then created collages.
The images will be taken at a dedicated photo shoot with strobes so no worry about theater lighting.
Many shots will involve leaping, etc.
He says he has a large green background to shoot against.
I only have two AB800 and one 580EX. I am thinking that I would set up the two AB800 in front of the camera at approximately 45 degrees. The intent would be to get a nice clean evenly exposed image. I am also thinking I will need to rent two additional strobes to light the backdrop. What is your thoughts on this? Only hitch here is that the shoot will take place over 2 or 3 sessions. I could maybe justify buying a third strobe if I could get away with only one illuminating the backdrop.
For the dance movement photos I was thinking of manually setting the focus at a predetermined point and an aperture of say f8 or f11 if there is enough light and have the dancers perform the movements at this point. The 5D II doesn't do well with fast AF and tracking. I am also hoping 1/160 and the strobes will stop the motion. Any thoughts here?
Any thoughts or experience you would like to share will be appreciated.
Sam
This is a Chinese dance school and the ages can range from toddler to adult. I believe the photos will be primarily of the kids. For the past two years the owner has extracted the dancers from the photos and then created collages.
The images will be taken at a dedicated photo shoot with strobes so no worry about theater lighting.
Many shots will involve leaping, etc.
He says he has a large green background to shoot against.
I only have two AB800 and one 580EX. I am thinking that I would set up the two AB800 in front of the camera at approximately 45 degrees. The intent would be to get a nice clean evenly exposed image. I am also thinking I will need to rent two additional strobes to light the backdrop. What is your thoughts on this? Only hitch here is that the shoot will take place over 2 or 3 sessions. I could maybe justify buying a third strobe if I could get away with only one illuminating the backdrop.
For the dance movement photos I was thinking of manually setting the focus at a predetermined point and an aperture of say f8 or f11 if there is enough light and have the dancers perform the movements at this point. The 5D II doesn't do well with fast AF and tracking. I am also hoping 1/160 and the strobes will stop the motion. Any thoughts here?
Any thoughts or experience you would like to share will be appreciated.
Sam
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cheers,
This is a boundry then make 2 verticals crossing the long horizontal...this is the action space.
for the non action shots still have them doing something not just standing/ sitting taking a pretty school portraits...they are dancers make them move a little bit...
depending on your mods I would crank the AB800's to full have them approx 10-15 feet apart and see if they will give a decent f number for the action shots at 10 feet from the subject......for the non action do standard Rembrandt or butter fly portrait lighting...do not worry too much about the background sounds like someone will remove it for the collage.......if I were closer I would offer my AB800's or my WL Ultra 1800 and my White 86" PLM.....I think this would be cinch with 2 86" white PLM's ... I have been pleased with results from 1 PLM used as shoot thru.....The AB800 with 7" reflector will flood approx a 16 foot wide area with even lighting...so even if you must go with just reflectors you can evenly light a huge area......you may want to gel the AB's for effects.....or not......it would help give show appearance.....
Back to gaffers tape......if you remove your gear after each days shooting .......... use gaffers tape to SPIKE everything sitting on the floor so that you can quickly re set up the next day.....so put spots of tape on the floor for each leg of the light stands and tripod....with one extra piece on a leg to identify how things sit and make that with a 1 and do the same on the piece on the floor that corresponds to that leg......there is a narrow (approx 1/2" wide) rolls of gaffers called Spike tape I keep yellow spike around all the time....Have even used it to mend a hole in the air tube on my CPAP machine.......
I'll post back later today.
www.jonbakerphotography.com
Really???
Hey Art,
Modifiers are fine in fact he will probably need one.....Im talking about flash duration.
Here is what I am talking about from the alien bee manual...
http://www.paulcbuff.com/manuals/pdf/ab_1009.pdf
So with the bee's the lower the power the longer the flash duration. (Less action stopping)
I am also thinking that the einstiens and white lightning do not have this issue but I will let you search for that one.
Hopefully this makes sense.
www.jonbakerphotography.com
What he has received in the past were images ether straight out of the camera or with minimum processing. The shoots were taken against a dark green backdrop with wrinkles, sewn together section and shadows. The dancers were only a few feet in front of the backdrop.
He is happy with these because he will be extracting all the dancers to create a variety colleges. He doesn't care about the shadows or backdrop issues.
I have a working space of about 20' by 20' and low 8' to 10' ceilings. Some jumping shots will need to be done outside. The other movement shots can be done inside.
The budget is too tight for me to spend any extended time, effort, etc in order to make this perfect.
What I can do within his budget is to get clean clear evenly lit shots of the dancers for him to work with. Run the lot through LR and be done with it.
Also looks like any additional sales to parent will be zero to negligible.
I am going to do some math, but it looks like 2 AB800 will provide sufficient light.
Sam