Father Daughter Dance

[calliebrin]

Hello everyone! I have been a member of this website for about 4 months now, really getting interested in learning photography.

I’m volunteering to take photos of a Girl Scout father daughter dance. I’m about as armature as you can get when it comes to photography. I have read about shutter speed, aperture, have some lights and backdrops on order and I’m taking a class this fall. Last year I rented lights, so I have an idea how to use them. This dance is going to happen before I’m educationally ready for it.

I have an Olympus 410 (first SLR) and would like some suggestions on what my manual settings should be? I would like to know how photographers get that “romantic” lighting? I see some pictures where the picture is too crisp and you can see every pore on a person’s face. I would like for the picture to be soft and “romantic.” Any help would be greatly appreciated. I just want to make the girls proud of their photo. I’ll send a sample picture after the dance!

[slvrwnd]

Are the pictures going to be posed portraits? Will you be taking "action" shots of the dancing as well?

[calliebrin]

They will be simple 5X7 portraits in front of a white backdrop, no action shots. I will be changing the backdrop to a digital one afterwards so that it works with the girls dress.

Thanks for reading!
Teresa

[calliebrin]

I see that 76 people have viewed this and only 1 response? Did I stump you or is this to easy for you guys?

[Reflections by Scott]

I find it really hard to tell you what settings are going to work without knowing what your lighting setup will be.

Also, are all the girls going to be wearing the same color dress', or are you going to digitally use different backgrounds for each girl by what she's wearing?

Hope you have practice at this, as depending on the background you're planning on using may require special lighting in order for the people to look right with the background.

[AnnaV]

Can you take some pics of the venue and post them? That might be a good idea first.

To get the soft, romantic effect you talk about, you want a nice diffused light (i.e. NOT straight on-camera flash) and a bit of post-processing.

A fairly easy way to achieve fairly good lighting in a low-light indoor shoot is to bounce the flash. However you will need a white/pale ceiling that isn't really high.

[calliebrin]

I will be using a green screen, well lit. The girls will be wearing different colored dresses, and anywhere from 2 - 5 people in the shot. I have 3 portrait lights, to which I will have 2 in front of the people and 1 on the green screen.

I appreciate all of you responding. I have been reading and watching videos like crazy and have learned quite a bit. It looks like I'm going to have to take that day off and experiment until I get it right.

thanks!
Teresa