Shooting College Dance Students - Tomorrow

Steven001

Steven001

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Steven
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Hello,

Short notice I know, but here goes:

I'm doing some shots tomorrow for my girlfriends dance teacher. She's an artist and wants some pictures of the girls dancing, so she can use them for painting, and my girlfriend kindly volunteered me to take the pictures :bang:

Now I've taken stills of them before, but not many moving images, jumps etc...

I'm going to be limited to my kit lens wit flash :thumbsdown: (I knew I should've bought that 30mm f/1.8! :bonk:

Just looking for some general advice? Was thinking to try and get 1/125 with flash on TTL, not sure what aperture I would be able to get away with though!

Again, any advice would be most helpful! :)

Thanks,
Steven

Edit: Just to add - I will be shooting them in their dance studio, which has 1 white wall and 3 mirrored walls.
 
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might be worth using a 2nd curtain flash, dont worry about bumping up the ISO if its dark (if its a school hall no doubt it will be) if you find the pictures too bright drop in a bit of negative flash exposure, or up the aperture to somethnig like F6-9 ish...

why not try and get some test shorts before you have to do the actual ones, just incase :)
 
BandyQuill said:
might be worth using a 2nd curtain flash, dont worry about bumping up the ISO if its dark (if its a school hall no doubt it will be) if you find the pictures too bright drop in a bit of negative flash exposure, or up the aperture to somethnig like F6-9 ish...

why not try and get some test shorts before you have to do the actual ones, just incase :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply! My D40 doesn't have an option for a 2nd Curtain Flash, only slow and rear :( Here's one I took of my Girlfriend the last time I was up taking pictures of her:

DSC_2098.jpg


I have the option of shooting with that wall as a background, or a wall of mirrors. I tend to go down on my knees when shooting people standing, so I'm not pointing the camera down at them, is that the right thing to do? :thinking:
 
Isn't 'rear' the same as second curtain flash anyway?
 
BandyQuill said:
ahhh it looks fairly light (much more than i was expecting) what you have there is allready pretty good to be honest !

can you get any lower, to try and get all of the body onto the white background, would make for a much better image
Click to expand...

Yea exactly what I was thinking, but it would mean me shooting up at the subject, would that distort the subject or make it unflattering?
 
BandyQuill said:
give it a try, i assume they will be dacing for a while so try and get a few angles, the more different images you get the more keepers there will be, as ive said before if you can get 10 mins before it all begins of them warming up or something to fire off a few test shots :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for your help mate :thumbs:

It's not a show they are doing, I think they are just posing for me to take pictures of them. I might do as you say though, and use my girlfriend to practice for 10 mins or so!
 
Steven001 said:
I've just read up on them to be honest. From my understanding, 2nd curtain flash fires on and the beginning and the end of the exposure, whereas 'rear' only fires at the end.
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  • Front curtain sync - flash fires at the beginning of the exposure.
  • Rear curtain sync (also called second curtain sync) - flash fires at the end of the exposure.
  • Slow sync - allows the use of a slower shutter speed (than normal flash sync speed).

http://www.digital-photography-school.com/slow-sync-flash
 
Steven001 said:
I've just read up on them to be honest. From my understanding, 2nd curtain flash fires on and the beginning and the end of the exposure, whereas 'rear' only fires at the end.
Click to expand...

Hi the option on the d40 is sync to fire at the start, and rear at the end, but I don't think there is a setting that will do both start and end- is there? Is this camera specific ie if One upgraded the flash can other flash units do it?
 
Ozei said:
  • Front curtain sync - flash fires at the beginning of the exposure.
  • Rear curtain sync (also called second curtain sync) - flash fires at the end of the exposure.
  • Slow sync - allows the use of a slower shutter speed (than normal flash sync speed).

http://www.digital-photography-school.com/slow-sync-flash
Click to expand...

I had just read up on that, thanks!

ectp said:
Hi the option on the d40 is sync to fire at the start, and rear at the end, but I don't think there is a setting that will do both start and end- is there? Is this camera specific ie if One upgraded the flash can other flash units do it?
Click to expand...

Correct, there isn't a setting that will do both, that what I was trying to say ;) My flash unit doesn't do it either, need to be built into the cameras functions I think.
 
ectp said:
...... I don't think there is a setting that will do both start and end- is there?
Click to expand...

No - the 'first' flash is just a pre-flash (before the shutter opens - used to measure intensity & set duration), the 'second' flash is the main flash for the exposure.
 
If you get a little lower, then you should be fine for the jumping shots to get them all in the shot with the wall as a background. It shouldn't distort the dancers.
If you want to take a white sheet, make sure you iron it, and I would then pin it to the top of the skirting board, but be aware of it slipping/moving when they land.
Take lots of batteries and shoot and shoot, they don't have to be perfect if she is then looking at painting them.
Where you bouncing the flash in the shot of your girlfriend btw?
 
lawrie29 said:
If you get a little lower, then you should be fine for the jumping shots to get them all in the shot with the wall as a background. It shouldn't distort the dancers.
If you want to take a white sheet, make sure you iron it, and I would then pin it to the top of the skirting board, but be aware of it slipping/moving when they land.
Take lots of batteries and shoot and shoot, they don't have to be perfect if she is then looking at painting them.
Where you bouncing the flash in the shot of your girlfriend btw?
Click to expand...

Thanks mate. It was bounced on the ceiling, with the card popped up reflecting some light forward too (if I remember right!) - why do you ask? :)
 
Well it didn't go as well as I hoped. I had no control over the dancers. They were doing a routine and some jumps, and I was to snap snap snap and get some decent pictures :bonk: Might have a few keepers but I'm not sure.

Afterwords I took a picture for my Girlfriend to use for her applications to London College. I quite like it:

5371586834_a4ef6d30bc_z.jpg
 
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