No, I am not trying out for So You Think You Can Dance. Yes, I wish I was.
Just testing out the remote lights before the main shoot actually – before I launch into my Thriller pose.
Last weekend I headed down to Gasworks Theatre in Port Melbourne to shoot another quality dance production by the highly regarded The Space dance company.
I would describe the show overall as a predominantly contemporary dance piece featuring shades of hip-hop, ballet, jazz and I think I saw abit of Irene Cara in there somewhere. It was an awesome show, it’s the kind of performance I would actually see on So You Think You Can Dance, the way these guys weave athleticism with artistry is to be admired and respected.
But i’m not a performing arts critique, I’m here to show you how I shot it…
As with most my setups, it’s fairly basic. So basic infact you’ll probably notice I’m using one lightstand and one tripod, am I being unprofessional? I have a 580EX in a shoot-thru umbrella on camera left, a 430EX in a shoot-thru on camera right. Each flash is mounted to their own PocketWizard Flex TT5.
Pocketwizard Flex TT5
For this shoot I used my Canon 5D Mark II with you guessed it, a PocketWizard Flex TT5 mounted to the camera’s hotshoe. I set the Pocketwizards on the flashes to Zone A. On this occasion I used ETTL. Yes, the enviornment was ripe for using manual flash settings but I had a lot of time on my hands and some very patient subjects so wanted to learn how ETTL performed under controlled lighting. Spoiler Alert: It all went well.
The stage lighting guys arrived and we were good to go. Aside from a few specific amtospheric lighting situations, I directed the stage guys to mainly set the lights to a blue/cyan colour and as you’ll notice, there were some tungsten spots used in certain shots.
◄▲Shoot-thru umbrella on camera left and right, this time I set the left flash on manual to overpower the right. (roughly 2:1 ratio)
I was mainly floating between 800-1600 ISO begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 800-1600 ISO end_of_the_skype_highlighting, shutter speed between 100-250+, aperture around 5.6+
Managed to get through the entire shoot without any ETTL hiccups, black banding issues i’ve come across from time to time using the Flex TT5′s or misfires. The 580EX flash head, or at least the batteries in them do get quite warm to hot and I think I read somewhere that it’s recommended that you give the flash heads a rest every few minutes during intense firing, to ensure longevity in the bulbs. Meh!
My somewhat young experience in doing these kinds of shoots is that there are two levels of communication with the subject. The choreographer stands beside you and directs the performers into poses. What’s interesting about this is that the choreographer doesn’t simply say “stand like this, and do this” but each pose is actually counted in, the sequence begins until we arrive at the freeze frame. Following this I’ll take the shot, observe any subjects that that needs subtle adjustments and shoot again.
It’s an interesting process.
I prefer to do most, if not all of my shooting before the show because obviously there is greater control in almost every aspect of the shoot. The epileptic lights and non-stop pace of a live performance makes this all much harder but occasionally you get a glimpse of something during these live performances that you just can’t recreate to the same level in a staged shoot, like the image below.
