2 Faced Dance Company - In the Dust

Hellooo!

In addition to photographing the 2Faced Dance Company annual youth performance, Detonate, I was also around to photograph a technical rehearsal for one part of the company's upcoming triple-bill of works called In The Dust. This section of the work has been choreographed by Tom Dale, working with the company. I'm photographing the remaining parts in a week's time, but as I was there anyway, and this was the only time Tom was available, it made sense to grab some photographs ...

The piece looks great, again owing a great deal to some excellent lighting design by James Mackenzie, whose shows are always sparingly, but beautifully lit ...

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Fabulous shots. Yes, the lighting is awesome!!!

Thanks again ...

I love photographing James' lighting - it's not easy - especially with 2Faced because they're a very physical company, but I enjoy the challenge, and love the results.

#2: Pity about the position of the guy in the middle of the frame.
Same goes for the guy in the background in #3.

Both would have been nice otherwise.

#4, 5, 6 and 8 are very nice

I hadn't noticed what I think you're referring to in #2 until you mentioned it, a little unfortunate (if that is what you're meaning) to have caught it just there ...

#3 he unfortunately is there for that move.

Have to agree with those four, with probably #4 as my favourite - whilst the gas mask looks really sinister and makes a great subject, the back-lighting is obviously dramatic, as is the wide shot, I feel like #4 is one I've made a strong image of a regular moment.

wow awesome pictures!

kathfern wrote in post #12696511
wow awesome pictures!

Thank you very much ...

5 and 6 are completely awesome.

I love the consistency throughout the set. I feel like, in low light, I loose that. Can you share your approach? Are you shooting in Manual, AV, TV for the whole set? Is there some way you intentionally shot these to keep that consistency?

I wish I had lights to shoot like that. Looks like a lot of fun.

aduda wrote in post #12711150
5 and 6 are completely awesome.

I love the consistency throughout the set. I feel like, in low light, I loose that. Can you share your approach? Are you shooting in Manual, AV, TV for the whole set? Is there some way you intentionally shot these to keep that consistency?

I wish I had lights to shoot like that. Looks like a lot of fun.

Hellooo!

Thanks very much ...

No problem sharing ... First of all, good lighting will help - and this piece was lit very nicely - very sparingly perhaps, but very nicely, and pretty consistently throughout - there were few changes, and certainly no wild switches between red and blue gels or anything like that.

As for my approach, I shoot in Manual throughout the set, and I'm pretty much only interested in preserving the highlights - those are what's being lit for a reason, and the blacks are meant to be black (the lighting designer for this set is a friend of mine, and he entirely agrees) - so I keep the needle well into what is "under-exposed" according to the meter, generally at least two stops because if I were using the zone system fully (I use my head's very basic version) then my highlights would be at least 2 zones different to the blacks.

I tend to start off with some base settings (ISO 1600 or 3200, 1/160th and f/2.8) that often work, but will adjust them a bit at the start until I find the general light level for the piece and then press on. Pieces do often have lighter, and darker moments and in those I adjust on instinct - with the lighter moments, trying to get the needle back down, and what I sense to be a darker moment - bring it back up slightly even if it still doesn't really register on the scale. Most of these were in fact shot at ISO6400 (it was very dark) and at times I had to dip the shutter to 1/50th and be careful with my moments, and my movements because I was often shooting at 70mm - and dancers rarely stay still.

I'm aware that this message is becoming increasingly lengthy, so I'll stop here but, if there's anything else you want to know - feel free to ask here or message me any time, and I'll do my best to help based on what I know/do ...

Yours, the man who walks into the post office at 9am with 35 parcels (and doesn't work there),

Owain.

I don't know but for me the last one is a winner!!!

love dancing pictures . .coz i am once a part of a crew . . which camera add - on is the most important when shooting on a dance show???

andy_dee wrote in post #12712374
I don't know but for me the last one is a winner!!!

Sorry, I hadn't noticed your reply until now, as the thread had slipped off down the pages ... Thanks!

adamjug wrote in post #12812732
love dancing pictures . .coz i am once a part of a crew . . which camera add - on is the most important when shooting on a dance show???

I'm not sure what you mean by camera add-on but, I'd say that the most important element is definitely the lens which really needs to be fast - fast aperture (f/2.8, or below) and fast to focus. You'll likely be dealing with at least fairly low levels of light, and dancers don't stand still very often ...

Owain Shaw wrote in post #12817280
I'm not sure what you mean by camera add-on but, I'd say that the most important element is definitely the lens which really needs to be fast - fast aperture (f/2.8, or below) and fast to focus. You'll likely be dealing with at least fairly low levels of light, and dancers don't stand still very often ...

what i meant, is that . .do i need external flash???tnx