The third lighting set up was designed to create images that showed the movement of the dancers. The technique is both simple to understand and difficult to execute perfectly. Using long exposures, it uses a combination of flash (to freeze action) and a continuous light to allow the shutter to record the movement. Depending on whether you set the flash to fire at the start or the end of the shutter time determines where the image will be sharp.

We used the stage area as it gave us plenty of space for the dances to move we could utilise the dark curtains and it was well away from the other lighting stations so that the images would not be affected by those stripes.

This type of photography is quite tricky for the dancer as they need to a key point on the stage at exactly the right time that the flash fires. Therefore it takes a lot of shots and a good deal of luck to nail the perfect image.

As can be seen below a lot of the early images were not up to par.

With the second dancer I tried a slightly different approach and then relying on the flash firing automatically, I brought in my speed light light and manually fired several times while the shutter was open. this has the result of freezing the action at several points in the capture.

This type of photography is both fun and frustrating. You never know exactly what you were going to end up with. each image can be a surprise or let down. But it is in that not knowing that the real enjoyment comes.

The second lighting set up was designed to create low-key moody portraits of the dancers. It used a single light in a 1.5m octobox that was covered with a grid to ensure that there was control of where the light went.

The background was a dark muslin fabric. Furthermore to enhance the shadows a black reflector was placed opposite the main light. This ensured that they was no bounce light coming on that side.

For my first shot I had the model sit on the floor which further feathered the light hitting them. For the second shot I had another dancer join in order to ensure focus I increased the aperture up to f9.

I was really pleased how these images came out. The key to the shot was really the use of the grid as this really enabled the light to be focused

As I mentioned in a previous post, in July 2021 I travelled down to Invercargill to be the host and assist at a Photographic Society of New Zealand (PSNZ) dance workshop. The workshop was being run by Auckland fashion photographer AaronKey and was held in a large hall that had very limited natural light.

We set up three very different lighting setups and the participants rotated through them. As each station was designed to produce a different look I am going to cover them in three separate posts.

I was expecting to only be helping with the session but we had a participant pull out so I ended up taking part as well so that the rotations worked properly.

Aaron works for sunny and through its connections borrowed a whole lot of lighting that he bought to the venue. It took us nearly 2 hours to set up the three lighting positions.

The first set was on a plane white seamless background and employed a single light shooting into a 7 foot umbrella. This set up was designed the freeze motion with a high key look.

The first dancer tended to move across the stage or rotate in one spot so I was shooting her at f5.6. The second dancer was leaping so I changed to aperture to f8 to give me a better depth of field.

Under natural light shutter speeds of 1/100s or 1/125s would not be fast enough to freeze action. However when you are using studio lights this is not an issue as it is the duration of the flash that freezes the subject. Shutter speed only has an impact on how much of the ambient light comes into the image.