Social Dancing

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sarajoy

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Sara
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I'm trying in vain to capture good photos of people (couples) dancing socially.

They're not well lit.
They're generally not predictable.
There's lots of them in close proximity so it's not so easy to knock out the background.

I'm trying... I now have an external (slave) flash and have turned an old (clean!) pair of knickers into diffusers... which I am going to have a go at using tonight.

Does anyone have any tips?

I have a Panny GF1 with the 20mm 1.7 pancake lens and also the 14-42mm 3.5-5.6 cheapy kit lens, a 0.45x wide angle adapter (pretty soft around the edges, mind) and the aforementioned slave flash.

My attempts so far:




More at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarawallen/sets/72157621430789724/
 
sarajoy said:
I'm trying in vain to capture good photos of people (couples) dancing socially.

They're not well lit.
They're generally not predictable.
There's lots of them in close proximity so it's not so easy to knock out the background.

I'm trying... I now have an external (slave) flash and have turned an old (clean!) pair of knickers into diffusers... which I am going to have a go at using tonight.

Does anyone have any tips?

I have a Panny GF1 with the 20mm 1.7 pancake lens and also the 14-42mm 3.5-5.6 cheapy kit lens, a 0.45x wide angle adapter (pretty soft around the edges, mind) and the aforementioned slave flash.

My attempts so far:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarawallen/5746320153/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarawallen/5722597047/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarawallen/5722600239/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarawallen/5746875190/

More at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarawallen/sets/72157621430789724/
Click to expand...



I'm on my phone so a quick tip for composition. Talk to the people as your taking the shot so they both look in your direction. Frame the shot and move out from behind the camera slightly and say, hey guys look at the camera or something. Works well, hope that helps.
 
To be completely honest I think the shots you have posted are great already! I think they capture the atmosphere and the movement really well. I would be REALLY happy with what you have caught under those conditions.
 
Try to change your shooing angle. Either get above them (chair, ladder), or squat down. Get the compere/caller to introduce you and to ask the dancers to look and smile as they pass. Give everyone a wave and thumbs-up; make yourself part of things.
 
Last edited:
Some good advice given already. In these situations I like to use rear curtain flash with a 1/60s shutter speed. This lets the exposure be dominated by room light but freezes the action at the end.

Like this one:
dsc_5720.JPG


Not stunningly brillian, but you get my drift (I hope) :)
 
Thanks people (and for the compliments!) - I am /part/ of it and could get stuck in but I rather dislike interrupting peoples' dances.. they see me and sometimes I get more attention than others - but typically the shot they pose a bit for goes all wrong!

I took some more this Wednesday and played with my flash, will post them up presently...
 
Oh, good call on varying my angles (next time) and yes, letting go on 5 is nice for us follows... :D
 
Jimmy_Lemon said:
To be completely honest I think the shots you have posted are great already! I think they capture the atmosphere and the movement really well. I would be REALLY happy with what you have caught under those conditions.
Click to expand...

:plusone:

The top left and bottom right are my faves - though bottom right bwould have been improved by a slightly narrower dof

btw I dont full agree about them looking at you - that makes shots feel staged - dancers should be looking at each other imo
 
Also a bit of long exposure and flash can work wonders in conveying movement

IMG_8133lr.jpg
 
big soft moose said:
:plusone:
Click to expand...

Cheers!

I'd love to get a narrower DoF but not possible at that distance with the GF1/20mm/1.7.

Wondering if getting a legacy nifty fifty might allow me to squish the DoF a bit (as I gather F-stop is a function of both aperture size and lens focal length, and that it'd expand the softness of the background) - but I wonder if the difference will be negligable...
 
given how cheap legacy lenses are it would definitely be worth a go - it might also be good to find something a bit longer like a legacy 85mm for picking out couples from a greater distance
 
I think the black and white ones in the second set work really well.

I think this is a classic case of not 100% technically perfect images capturing the moment, I think if you followed all the rules the images might look a bit boring.
 
5794091233_6537fc7501_z.jpg


Cracking shot! Movement, timeless feel, atmosphere, nice composition... love it.
 
Oh, maybe I need to stop worrying then...!

Would like a longer lens though ... :)
 
jon ryan said:
5794091233_6537fc7501_z.jpg


Cracking shot! Movement, timeless feel, atmosphere, nice composition... love it.
Click to expand...

:plusone:

if we were being hyper picky i'm not sure about the woman on the left who's looking bored and looking out of the shot - maybe it would be stronger cropped to square to remove her ?
 
Good call - I suspect she's looking out for the next lead to cut in - this was a birthday dance where the birthday person stays in the middle and her partners change as they keep swapping in or stealing her :)
 
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