Clicking Dance Crew

[muzi1311]

Hi I need help. I've been doing portrait shootouts and recently a dance crew(freestyle/break-dancing) asked me to do a photo shoot of them. I really want to do it but I have no idea as I being photographing people who remained still but they are going to dance and jump around. Can I have some tips and know what equipment should I use plz plz do reply

[zona5101]

Hi and welcome.

what equipment do you have?
Will you be shooting indoors or out?

[muzi1311]

I'm using Nikon D3000, 18-55 and 70-300mm (F4-5.6) lens. I also have a 5 in 1 light reflector. I will be shooting mostly outdoor but might go indoors too

[Hill Country Hack]

Here is what I would do. Those with more experience please correct me. I'd begin in Apeture Priority (AP)and select the most open apeture I can for the narrower DOF to allow the subjects to pop out a bit more. If shooting outdoors and sunny I'd also use a ND filter and select center weighted metereing. If I want to freeze the dance action and couldn't get a fast enough shutter speed in AP, then I'd switch to Shutter Priority and dial in the shutter speed I want. Slow the shutter down a bit and try some panning. Just play around with it and have fun.

For the indoor shots I have to defer to those with lighting experience. In general, if you don't have off camera flash you may have difficulty getting what you want with the gear you have. You may be able to use the reflector (you would need an assistant), to reflect direct light coming into the space onto your subjects. Again, I'm no lighting expert.

Look in your manual and see if you can get a "back button focus". It helps me tremedously when shooting moving objects.

Use multiple perspectives. Kneel, stand, get up on a ladder and shoot down,lay on the floor. Find interesting backgrounds while avoiding brick walls as they are so overdone. If the dancers are jumping around try to maintain something in the background to avoid the "guy in the sky".

Good luck with your project and post some of your results.

[Doug Sundseth]

I would actually use manual mode rather than one of the priority modes, because it's fairly likely that otherwise your exposure will vary with the color of the stuff in your frame. Assuming the lighting isn't changing much during your shoot, once you have the exposure set, you shouldn't need to touch it unless you're doing something different artistically.

Set your shutter speed to 1/500 sec. to start with (assuming you want to freeze the action), and set your aperture to give you the depth of field you want. Then adjust the exposure by adjusting your ISO. If it's too bright out, speed up the shutter until the exposure is right.

If you want to get motion blur for an artistic effect (which could work pretty well with this sort of subject, you might need to add an ND filter to slow the shutter down.

Indoors you're likely to be working hard to get enough light to freeze the action. There I'd plan to use strobes.

[muzi1311]

Thanks for the tips and one last question which ND filter to use and can i know a bit more about ND filters as I'm not familiar with them.Thank you

[Doug Sundseth]

ND filters come in many different densities. Pick the one that's dark enough to give you the shutter speed and aperture you need. But if you use good lenses, definitely use good filters.

[Hill Country Hack]

Originally Posted by Doug Sundseth

I would actually use manual mode rather than one of the priority modes, because it's fairly likely that otherwise your exposure will vary with the color of the stuff in your frame. Assuming the lighting isn't changing much during your shoot, once you have the exposure set, you shouldn't need to touch it unless you're doing something different artistically.

Set your shutter speed to 1/500 sec. to start with (assuming you want to freeze the action), and set your aperture to give you the depth of field you want. Then adjust the exposure by adjusting your ISO. If it's too bright out, speed up the shutter until the exposure is right.

If you want to get motion blur for an artistic effect (which could work pretty well with this sort of subject, you might need to add an ND filter to slow the shutter down.

Indoors you're likely to be working hard to get enough light to freeze the action. There I'd plan to use strobes.

I like Doug's input also.

I have tried shooting sports/action in straght manual and have very hit or miss results. Though I know my gear well, it is at times very much a challenge for me to adjust ISO on the fly to maintain exposure (watching the needle in the viewfinder) while panning, framing, composing timing the shots and looking for the focus confirmation light all at the same time.

The advantage you will have is you can set for the shot and then cue the action. So looking at it from that point, manual should work better.