Photographing Dance Shows
by Harald Heim
Shooting stage performances is quite a challenge for a photographer. Different dancers quickly move across a stage under stage lights that emit little light or change their color and position. Interesting poses and dance figures are performed in a fraction of a second, so they are easily missed. Such conditions place a strong demand on your skills and equipment.
On the other hand you won't get bored even if you shoot the same show more than one time. Dance shows have so much action going on around the stage that it is impossible to capture all interesting moments in one session. Besides, you can use a slightly different approach every time and achieve very different photographic results. Because of the fast dance movements it is as good as impossible to exactly imagine how the dancer will look later on the photo. So you may be positively surprised about some photos when reviewing them later.
The suggestions below are based on my experiences of shooting flamenco and belly dance shows. The example photos were taken at four performances of a flamenco group called Duende Flamenco. One of the shows had bright daylight, a second one had a mixture of evening light and stage lights, a third had medium bright stage light and the last event took place under very poor and colored light. So the photos covers many possible light conditions. Four of the photos were even taken at ISO 3200 and were heavily color corrected.
I usually assume the worst case here: extreme low light. If you are lucky enough to shoot at daylight or with very bright stagelights, you will have much less problems achieving good results. Although I refer to dance performances, feel free to try these tips for shooting any kind of performances on stage or under low light.
Camera and Lenses
If you want the best results, don't use anything else than a DSLR camera for doing dance photos under low light conditions. SLRs with high-ISO films will give you very grainy results and force you to waste precious time with exchanging films. Digital consumer cameras will disappoint even more. If you use a modern DSLR with a big sensor, e.g. a full-frame DSLR, you will be able to shoot at ISO 3200 with acceptable noise.
If you are lucky, you may be able to shoot a dance show at daylight.
Usually you will be shooting dance shows under poor light conditions, so it helps a lot to use fast lenses (e.g. 50mm and 100mm or alternatively 50mm, 85mm and 135mm) with apertures between 1.4 and 2.0. The two or three extra stops that you gain with a fast lens can sometimes make the difference between unusable and usable shots under extremely poor light. A fast lens also allows you to use lower ISO values with better lighting, which results in even less noise in the images. On the other hand using a wide open aperture can cause a narrow depth of field, which means that you have to be more careful with focusing.
For close-up shots with a tele lens it helps a lot to have an image stabilization built into your lens or your camera. Long focal ranges demand a shorter exposure time because hand shake is a bigger problem with them. So image stabilization helps you to achieve long exposure times like 1/60 seconds even at a focal range of 200 to 300mm. Without image stabilization you may not be able to do close-up portrait shots under very bad light conditions.
You can also use zoom lenses with minimum apertures of 2.8. Zoom lenses also have the advantage that you are not forced to exchange them as often as prime lenses. If you want to do different types of shots from wide angle to tele with high-quality lenses, you need more than one lens. A basic equipment would be a 28-70mm/2.8 lens and a 70-200/2.8 lens. You can also try less expensive 4.0 lenses for tele shots (e.g. 70-200/4 or 70-300/4-5.6), but you should at least have image stabilization built into them.
Flash or Available Light?
Generally I would not recommend using a flash for shooting dance photos. With a flash you capture fewer photos, because you have to wait for the flash to charge, which in turn means that you may miss some great photos. Constant flashing usually annoys the dancers and audience. Even more important is that a flash can destroy the light mood of the stage lights. If there is a large stage, a flash that is attached to the camera may only lighten a part of the scene. The harsh frontal light of the flash also adds ugly drop shadows. Often the stage ceiling is dark, which makes bounced flashing for more balanced illumination impossible.
However, there are always exceptions to every rule. For example, you could use a flash for group shots at the end or for a few calculated shots when the dancers stand still for a moment. If you get permission, it can be interesting to turn the stage into a photo studio. You could place one or two camera flashes or studio flash units on tripods around the stage and trigger them wirelessly or with the flash that is attached to your camera. With such a setup you may achieve nicely lit photos, but you still have to be careful to not disturb the show with too much flashing.
Taking photos without any flash, which is the standard approach, also means some problems. Usually you will be shooting indoors at artificial light. The bad lighting conditions may force you to use a fast lens and turn up the ISO value on your digital camera. If you don't need to do poster size prints, high-ISO photos can also be sized down to reduce noise to a more acceptable level. Many photographers don't mind grainy photos or even find them more attractive, but if you have a problem with it, you can also use noise reduction tools like Neat Image or Noise Ninja.
Another issue is white balance. If you want to take as many photos as possible and in fast succession, you will probably shoot JPG instead of RAW files. You can manually white balance your camera by focusing a white wall or sheet of paper, although some cameras may not do the best white balancing job. Additionally if the stage lights change their color repeatedly, it may not be an option. Luckily there is software that can quickly and easily fix this later, e.g. ColorWasher or iColor EditLab Pro.
Single Shot or Burst?
Nice occasions for single shots are the beginning or end of a dance when the dancers strike an impressive pose and keep it for several seconds. But during the dance most dance movements are performed within fractions of a second, which is too fast for a photographer to react in time. Of course, you could try to memorize the choreography of the dance and already plan which dance steps to shoot ahead of time, but most photographers won't have the time or motivation for such consuming preparation. So I recommend a technique which I would describe as calculated burst shots.
This method requires that you have your camera set to burst mode and press down the shutter for one, two or three seconds if you see a dancer perform an interesting pose. Most dances repeat various steps, so if you recognize the beginning of a dance step or passage (that you saw several seconds ago and that you liked), you can press down the shutter and keep it pressed until this passage ends.
To get a feeling for the most impressive dance poses and steps you only
need to look at videos or photos of such performances. You can also view
the show, memorize some poses and start shooting on the second performance.
Of course, you can also try your luck and start shooting right away. After
a few shootings and analyzing your photos, you should get a better feeling
for the dance movements anyway.
If you shoot in burst mode, you have to think about bringing enough memory cards with you, because you can easily shoot several hundreds of photos. Nothing is as frustrating as running out of memory cards in the middle of a show. For example, I once took almost 2000 photos during a three hour show with different dance groups. I only managed it by transferring full memory cards to an external hard drive during shooting and reusing the memory cards.
Camera Settings
Probably the most important camera setting when it comes to dance photography is shutter priority mode. As a start you should try an exposure time of 1/125 second and turn up the ISO until your camera indicates that the exposure is right. Sometimes you will have to go to down to 1/60 and up to ISO 3200 if there is very little light. Under good lighting you should consider using a 1/250 exposure time.
In shutter priority mode your camera will most likely choose the biggest aperture. If you use a prime lens with a maximum aperture of 2.0 or lower the depth of field can get very small, especially if you are located right in front of the stage. So it may be a good idea to turn up the ISO value even more to make the camera choose a smaller aperture value. Alternatively you can also switch to manual mode and choose a higher aperture value if the stage lighting is constant.
Sometimes the light is so poor that you won't even achieve 1/60 second without underexposure. In such a case I would recommend that you risk underexposure. Later you can still turn up the brightness in the Levels dialog in Photoshop or in your RAW Converter. Basically doing that is similar to the push processing technique known from analog photography. This way you can theoretically achieve ISO values beyond 3200. For example if the digital photo was shot at ISO 3200 with one stop underexposure and you push it digitally, it is as if the photo was taken at ISO 6400. This technique means more noise, but at least you achieve photos without smeared motions.
For metering in shutter priority mode you can choose the evaluative metering mode. Unlike the center weighted mode, it usually won't fail for bright dancers and a dark background. With constant stage lighting you can also meter the face of a dancer in spot metering mode, add between +1 and +2 exposure compensation and use the displayed exposure time and aperture in manual exposure mode.
Letting the camera automatically choose focus points is quite convenient, but will produce a certain percentage of unfocused shots. It is better manually choose a focus point that lies on the face of a dancer. As dancers move very quickly it is often more convenient to use the center focus point and reposition the camera after holding down the shutter half way. After a few burst shots the position of the dancers will have changed. If you follow a dancer with your camera it helps to let your camera track the movement and automatically adjust focus. If you want to capture two or more dancer that move in different directions, automatic tracking won't work, so you will have to refocus yourself.
In low light the auto focus system of your camera may hunt a bit and waste precious seconds. If the position of the dancers doesn't change dramatically, it is a good idea to switch to manual focus to keep the camera from refocusing again with every shutter press. Sometimes it may also save time to focus manually.
Getting Everything Into Perspective
If you want your photos to look ordinary, you just need to randomly choose a free seat or position around the stage. If you invest some thoughts about perspective before the show starts, you have a good chance of producing more unique photos.
If you can freely move around the stage, it may be a good idea to take some test shots from different perspectives before the show. Looking at these test shots on the display of your digital camera you can think about which perspectives to choose and what type of photos to make at what position.
Test
shots for investigating possible perspectives:
1. Left Side: Fine for side shots
2. Left Diagonal From Behind: Nice for wide angle shots that show the dancers
as well as the audience
3. Frontal Left: OK for full body shots.
4. Frontal: Stage decoration hides the dancer's feet. Only for upper body
shots.
5. Frontal Right: Some disturbing elements in the left part of the view. Better
zoom in.
6. Right Side: The background is too dark and unattractive for wide angle.
OK for close up shots.
One of the best perspectives is the frontal perspective, because the dancers usually orientate themselves towards the audience. Frontal side views can contain too many stage elements, which may distract from the main subject. A side perspective is often nice. Diagonal side views can also be interesting for capturing the stage action together with the audience. Even if you have these proven perspectives in mind, don't hesitate to try unusual positions from time to time. For example, I once made the most impressive shots during a flamenco concert from behind the stage with back lighting from the frontal stage lights.
Try to get a seat in the middle of the first row or position yourself right in front of the stage. This way you can make frontal shots and also move around for different perspectives. However, don't move around the stage all of the time, otherwise you may miss some great shots and annoy some spectators. So try fewer and more calculated position changes.
A low perspective makes the dancers look more impressive
You can also vary these perspectives in the vertical direction. Many people take photos of other persons at eye-level, which forces them to lower the camera if the subject isn't that far away. It is often better to have the camera aimed at the middle of your subject at a right angle. Placing your camera in a lower position definitely improves the look of dance shots. It makes the dancers appear larger and more impressive. Shooting at eye-level or from a heightened position can have the contrary effect.
When shooting dance shows, you often don't even have to get on your knees for a lower perspective. Dance stages are usually up to one meter above ground. Sometimes you are forced to shoot from a lower position anyway, because otherwise you would block the view of the spectators. If you rest your elbows on the raised stage floor, you can get an impressive perspective and also stabilize your hands.
Side and frontal wide angle shots
Types of Photos
Many wide angle shots of the whole stage or a group of dancers need to be sorted out, because often not all dancers have the perfect pose and facial expression at the same time. Additionally there are many elements in such shots that distract the viewer from the dancers. As a result these photos usually don't have such an emotional impact than photos of single dancers in front of a neutral background.
Nevertheless, such wide angle shots are important for the documentation of a dance event and to give the viewer an introduction to the other photos. You can try to neutralize distracting elements by carefully choosing perspective, focal length and aperture. A wide open aperture can blur away the background and the right perspective and focal length keep unwanted items out of view. Better shoot such photos at the beginning or the end of a dance when the dancers have a symmetric stage position and keep a pose for several seconds.
Left to right: Portrait, Full Dancer, Detail Shot, Upper Body Panorama.
More tight cropped shots of a single dancer offer fewer items for distracting the viewer's attention and invoke more emotion. Typical shots show the whole dancer (or the full body of two close dancers), his or her upper body or a portrait with head and shoulders only. You can zoom even closer and show only abstract details like a hand, the feet, the hair, a fan or a flying skirt. However, they often move faster than the rest of the body, so it is more difficult to capture them.
Of course, you can crop photos later in Photoshop, but it is always good to already choose the right focal range and image section during shooting. Choosing a more tight section usually makes a photo more expressive, but if you crop away too much of a photo, you may not be able to print it at a larger size.
