Pro dance studio dancers
I got a very interesting assignment last monday. Pro dance studio needed promo shots, a kind of portfolio of their dancers to forward it to their clients. So the point was not to show their dancing poses, but it was more or less to “introduce” the girls to the clients. So I went for the portrait/fashion approach to the shoot (of course we did also mix up some dancing poses). I had to shoot 15 girls in 5 hours and that included group shots in various outfits as well. So you can imagine what kind of pace I had to keep. I had roughly 5-10 minutes per girl. After shooting with each girl, we viewed the photos on the laptop. If the series was good we moved on, if not I had to take a few more shots (I also took a few more shots if the series was good, but the make up of the girl that was supposed to be next, wasn’t finished yet). The shoot looked like this: show me what you got girls! Strike your poses! Because of the previously mentioned ultra limited time frame, there was no time for me to guide them through the poses and make all the necessary corrections (regarding poses, mimics etc). I did, of course, make a few suggestions and (tried to) make them show more energy and passion. Most of the girls were pretty relaxed and that was a big plus for me. Usually every girl (that’s not a professional model) needs at least a few minutes to warm up. As always some did better than others, but all in all regarding the circumstances, I was satisfied with the results and most importantly, the client was pleased.
Because of the limited amount of time that we had, I used just one light set up. I did want to try out 3-4 various set ups, but there was no time (I’d need at least an hour or so) and I’m glad Mimi helped me out with the lighting, so I didn’t have to waste too much time setting it up. We chose to go along with the more dramatic, hard light. And I’m glad the client went along with it, since I’m just so tired of studio shoots with boring flat lighting (up to date, that was all that I shot in a studio, unless it was a personal project). I also have to thank Mimi, for letting me use her 70-200 2.8. And make my arms almost fall off after 5 hours of constantly using it 
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Let me just wrap this up in a few sentences. Shooting was a blast. Not only because it was fun to shoot with all those girls, but also because of the pace (you really have to be alert all the time) and the fact that everything was running pretty smoothly, everybody was in a good mood, usually these kind of circumstances would be really hard for the people (meaning the girls) that are not in this “business”.
I’ll post photos in the order they were shot. As always, I recommend viewing them LARGER.
One of the first photos that were taken (I don’t count prep shots as real shots of course). The lighting wasn’t really there yet, it doesn’t have a “meaningful shadow” behind her, nor does it vignette the way it should. But I like the shot as a whole and it was one of the chosen (by me and pro dance staff) ones for this girl (I still haven’t completed the selection).
As you can see, I did manage to get shadows “in order”.
A classic, but photos like this, bring money to the clients…A song, shake that money maker, comes to my mind. I wonder why, hmmm 
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BW or color?
I like the photo above. Let me tell you why. The first series that we’ve made, didn’t really look good. To be honest, the photos were bad. However, I suggested we make another brief series of shots and she was a bit hesitant, since she was also pretty disappointed after viewing the shots on the laptop. It was a tricky situation. It’s not good to push models, especially if something beats them down. But then we did make another try (to be honest I was quite doubtful of the outcome, because of her mood and state of mind). I cheared her up, pushed her a bit to show me more emotions, energy. And I think this photo shines. It shows energy. A real contrast to the first, completely lifeless and dull series. I must say I’m proud of what we achieved in just a few minutes. Because it’s so hard to turn things around so quickly. If you’ve done a lot of model (portrait, fashion etc) photography, I’m sure you know what I mean and probably also how good it feels to turn things around completely.
Wildcat. I love it when girls get wild! Don’t you?
As you can see, every photo has (a slightly) different post production. The client will, of course, get them post processed in the same style, as it’s logical for a series of photos. But I’ve decided to post process every photo differently for this blog post, to make it a bit more interesting and to get a feedback on what works best for the photos in your opinion.
(12 votes, average: 4.92 out of 5)
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(6 votes, average: 3.5 out of 5)
