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Dance Floor Photography Low Light

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    #1

    Dance Floor Photography Low Light

    Hi all,

    I would like to shoot some dance photography (Modern Jive etc or Wedding Dances) , I have attempted this before but never got it quite right ie foreground was way to bright, and I lost the atmosphere of the room / dance. I would rather not up the ISO to anything above 800, I would perfer to shoot at max ISO of 400, I have a f2.8 lens and ad 580mk1 flash gun.

    What options are available for shoot on a dance floor, to freeze the foreground and then a bit of blur in the back ground would I set the 2nd curtain sync on the camera? what are the best settings for the flash i.e increase or decrease the exposure on the flash etc

    Any ideas would be great.

    Thanks
    Tags: None
    #2
    Re: Dance Floor Photography Low Light

    So much depends on how much ambient light is available.

    If the ceiling is light, I would set the Custom Function to 2nd curtain synch, the flash at -2EV (possibly -1EV) and bounce the flash off the ceiling. That will give you better coverage and shouldn't overlight the foreground dancers. There will be some movement, but the end of their movement should be frozen by the flash. If it is a dark ceiling, use a diffuser such as Stofen, Gary Fong etc.

    So that your movement doesn't add to that of the dancers, I would use a tripod and remote release.

    I would probably be looking to use IS0 1600 and be prepared to run it through a noise reduction program afterwards. Possibly 800 ISO, but not 400 ISO. A superb shot with some noise is far preferable to a mediocre shot with no noise.

    This is a challenging environment and you will need to experiment, but at least you can view the rear screen and histogram, rather than wait two weeks in the days of film.

    Good luck and I hope you will post some results.

    Colin
    Colin

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      #3
      Re: Dance Floor Photography Low Light

      On the ISO it would depend on the camera, what have you got. ?
      the 40D will be ok to ISO 800 5D2 to ISO 1600 and 400D to ISO 400

      Id just use the button on the flash to set the 2nd curtain.

      No tripod for me :-)

      Seems like were chalk and cheese on this one Colin, apart form the experiment/setup bit

      Start off camera in manual 1/4 sec F2.8 ISO 800 2nd curtain, with some test subjects.
      Falsh ettl add some +- comp if required.

      Low-light can cover a lot of situations , difficult to know without being there.
      Millie

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        #4
        Re: Dance Floor Photography Low Light

        Nifty fifty would help
        ef-r

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          #5
          Re: Dance Floor Photography Low Light

          Hi all thanks for that I am pretty certain the ceiling is high and dark, the camera I have is a 1dmk3 so iso should be a problem I guess I will just have to fly by the seat of my pants on the night!, I will try the 2nd curtain sync and the high iso with out flash and see what happens, any more ideas would be cool

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            #6
            Re: Dance Floor Photography Low Light

            If it's a wedding I would be more scared to experiment too much, the results can range from visually stunning to complete rubbish as you know.
            If you are using slow shutter 2nd curtain I'd say warn them not to move their hands across their faces during the exposure.

            I would set up two sets of settings, one with a slow shutter speed 2nd curtain 'flash to freeze', and one with more conventional settngs, so you can flick between the two when other opportunities present themselves. Will you use any kind of diffuser ?

            Iam doing something similar this friday night - that's why your post caught my eye.
            Hard to be precise with settings, as I said low light covers a wide spectrum. Hopefully more people will post on this.
            Millie

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              #7
              Re: Dance Floor Photography Low Light

              I can't offer any advice on settings, but might suggest you have a look at the current edition of EOS Magazine as it has an article covering such events

              EOS magazine | Elevating photography with your Canon camera to the extraordinary
              http://www.eos-magazine.com/
              For Canonites everywhere. To get more from your Canon EOS camera, you need EOS magazine. It's the only magazine that takes your photography as seriously as you.


              Nigel
              My Flickr photostream

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                #8
                Re: Dance Floor Photography Low Light

                Duffy here is an example of what can go wrong, the conditions are roughly what you mentioned.
                I didn't delete because it could be used as one of a series of images that tell a story of an evening.

                I ended up getting her to do a static pose and used 1/20 F2.8 ISO 800 Flash ettl no +- comp.

                1/4sec ISO 800 F.4 Flash comp +1


                Millie

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