Dance Photos

Hi all, I am trying to take pictures of my daughter in her dance costumes. When she is posing standing up. I find that I have to be real far back to get all of her, but then she looks real small in the frame and I am having a hard time trying to figure out the best place to position the camera. Any tips?

Here is one of my shots. Tips or suggestions please. By the way this is me having to crop big time. I don't want to have to crop so much.

Thank you

Brittany,

There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with that for a full body crop. You could trim on the right and left but then you would not have a standard sized crop. I generally take my pictures pretty close, so doing a full body shot always feels like the subject is way too far away, maybe that is what you are feeling.

Also, try using a different background color if you can. Her sleeves, shorts and shoes get lost with the dark background. I prefer a light gray for dance shoots as it does well for a wide variety of costumes.

Tim

HI Brittany,

It looks like you're making some progress with your full length portraits and 'studio' shots.

I can offer a few suggestions. I would pull the subject further forward from the background but I would also consider using a different color background for a shot like this. My reason would be because there is black in the shorts, top and shoes and had you actually rendered the background black you would not see much contrast and your subject would just be a face, fingers and legs. A gray or white background would work much better to get separation without the use of additional hair or accent lights and would also let us see her black dance shoes, which for me, add a lot to the character of a photograph of a dancer.

Your main light looks pretty good but to my eye it could use a bit more fill to not only open up the shadow side of the face and her right eye, but to also fill a bit under the chin. Depending on the size of the modifiers used I would try to get a bit more fill towards the bottom of the image so that the calves, ankles and shoes are better lit.

I forgot to add, these shots were done with the black background only because it was already there. I was just trying to get camera position and lights set right. Thank you for the tips so far.
I am used to cropping real tight so when doing a full body shot. I feel like something is very wrong. How is the camera position?

britt777 wrote in post #5849883
How is the camera position?

For my taste it's a little low for a full length shot.

TMR Design wrote in post #5850082
For my taste it's a little low for a full length shot.

Agree: Now she "looks down" on me, the viewer.

HI René. That was my feeling.

The hair hanging over the left (of the photo) eye is distracting. She is a pretty girl but all I could think of was that she maybe had surgery and her right eye was lower that her left because of it. If you move the hair it would def even out. - Also agree with the above.

I believe the colors would be okay if you moved her away from the drop and lit the drop seperately and adjusted the light on the drop to separate the colors.