Evaluation

I rather enjoyed this unit as it allowed me to capture a subject which is meaningful to me. Photographing dance I had to work with two art forms; dance being about movement and expressing emotions and Photography about capturing those emotions in a still image.

Being a dancer myself I thought this would be quite easy as I have plenty of dancing friends who would happily model for me. Being a dancer also helped me create my images as I knew what sort of positions I wanted them to do (and made sure they were technically right) that would also work for the composition of the camera. This project was my first attempt at dance photography, but also of photographing moving objects!

For my first set of images, I was a bit short of time and I and fellow dancers were also busy with rehearsals and shows. So I decided to take a few images of my Pointe shoes and I took these on my bridge camera. They're alright, but not the best quality and although they're linked to dance, they're not actual dancing. So then I booked out a college camera (DSLR) and photographed my friend in her ballet lesson. However, I didn't like these images either because the background was too messy and distracting. These sets of images were experimental and helped me progress onto my studio shoot.

This was my first time photographing in a studio, so I didn't really know what to expect and how my images would turn out. The lights were always on in the shoot and in the same position and this allowed me to focus more on the dancers and what they were doing. I told them some positions I wanted and I also gave them the freedom to do whatever they wanted. During the shoot, I had to adjust my shutter speed, apperture and sometime ISO depending on the speed of the movement. This again was experimental and it took me a few attempts to get the setting right for certain images so that my images weren't blurred or over or under exposed. At the end of the shoot I was quite pleased with myself having captured some good images for my first time using professional photography equipment. Then I had to edit the images in Photoshop and this wasn't too hard and there wasn't much for me to do. Only simple things such as spot healing and clone stamping and adjusting the colour levels.

I needed another set of images and lookily for me, I had a dance show coming up. So again I booked out one one the college's 600D's so that I was able to adjust the settings. Because it was dark in the auditoium, but bright on stage, I used 'Tv' mode, shutter priority, so I only needed to adjust the shutter speed. This shoot was quite hard as the majority of the time it was quick dancing, so I needed a high shutter speed do that the images didn't blur, however I had to tackle with the bright and vibrant stage lights which were giving the images a washed out colour effect. This was my first time photographing dancers on stage and I did find it quite hard and some of the images hadn't come out like I'd hoped or like I'd seen in previous artists' work.

The main artist who influenced me is Gene Shiavone, whose images I had seen long before this project on his Facebook page. Seeing these images and how he was able to capture the beauty of dance is what encouraged me to choose it as my genre. Whilst researching, I also found the work of Paul Colwell, who mainly focuses on studio shoots. He liked the more contemporary and obsqure dance moves which showed freedom and with the help of his wife whose a dancer, he's able to get a range of great images. Although I liked the work of these artists, I wanted my images to be my own, so I just went into the shoots with my own ideas and gave it my best shot!

There were a lot of important factors to consider when I was taking my images, but I feel the most important was getting the shutter speed right. Most of the time a high shutter speed was needed so my images didn't blur and having really crisp and sharp images really helped to bring the beauty across. E.g the freedom of the hair and the flow of the dress - the high shutter speeds allowed me to capture this movement clearly. The composition of the image was also important when creating my own imagery. Where I placed the dancer within the frame helped to tell the story of where they had just been, or where they were traveling to - which helped portray the emotion within the dance.

Tips I would give new photographes wanted to capture dance would be to watch the dancers. If they're not a dancer themself it will really help just to sit and watch dancers to see what they do and how they do it. Once you've seen what they can do, you can then think about the composition of the image. Another tip is to know how the setting on your camera work, especially the shutter speed, so you kow how to clearly and sharply capture the quick movement.

Diptych

Here I created a Diptych which is 2 images put together which have a link within them. For this diptych, the image on the left we see Pippa in a preparation position for the image on the right - this is how the 2 images link together. 

Dance Show Pictures (3rd set)

Here are a few images I took during a Dance show rehearsal. As you will see these images are different to my ones from the studio shoot as I took them whilst they were rehearsing a dance, rather than asking them to pose for me. When taking the images I had to tackal with the dark environment, Vibrant/colourful stage lights and the speed of the dancers. I used the camera on shutter priority (Tv), so I only had to change the shutter speed, the camera would do everything else for me. Although these are a different style of images showing dance, I preffer my studio shoot as I was able to take more control of the images.

In this first image we see a girl doing a back bend with one leg straight in the air, and if you look closely at the costume, you can see it's a giraffe. I really like the image as it combines art an dance. It shows us how the many interesting positions and shapes within dance can create realistic things. This image also shows us the dancers flexibility, which is a key concept of dance.

In this image we can see how emotion comes through in their dance a they fully extend their arms and legs into the position. If they didn't put any effort in then the position would have looked boring. The orange of the costumes and the purple of the lights really contrast and stand out in this image.

This image really shows us how important timing is because in group numbers, dancers have to be in sync with each other; which we can see in this image because they're all in the same position. The orange costumes again contrast with the green lighting and they link in with the theme of the dance - which was lion king

Again here is another image showing us them all dancing in time. I decided to make it black and white because the purple stage lights made it really bright and it bit hard to look at. The purple stage lights also gave it quite a washed out effect which is why there isn't much contrast between the blacks and whites. 


I really like this next image as the back light onstage gives us a silhouette effect of the actual dancers.when you first see it you'd think it was painted/printed, but the more you look at it the more you realize it's real people. This also links with the mystery of dance, who are they? why are they there? what's happened? In Photoshop I really boosted up the contrast to make the blue really bright and the blacks totally black.

Here we see the dancers sliding and again they really include their emotions by fully extending their arms and legs to put full effort in. The shapes within the dancers also make the image look interesting, the triangle shape with their legs and floor, and a backwards 'L' shape with their arms.Again the stage lights have made the image look really bright and if you look closely you can see their shadows in the background.



I really like this next image which is why I made it black and white because I want people to focus on the dancers and what they're doing rather than their surroundings and vibrant stage lights. They're both doing an 'off balance split jump' and again they're in time with each other. This move also shows the energy needed within dance, because they needed to jump high and then give that extra burst of energy and flexibility to pull the position. I needed a high shutter speed for this image as it was a quick move.







There is a lot going on in this next image, but the main focus is of the girl, Jasmine,  doing the 'straddle jump' which they were doing in a kind of leapfrog effect landing on top of each other. They were wearing white costumes for this dance and there was a range of bright coloured stage lights which makes the image very vibrant to look at. So I made this image black and white so it was easier to focus on the dancers.

I'm not so keen on these image as first of all the lighting isn't the best as the purple stage lights have taken over the image and made it very vibrant and have given it a wash effect. Also the dancers aren't all in time with eachother, which makes it look less effective. 

Again, although something really good is happening in this image, I'm not so keen on it again because of the purple lighting. I also needed to be further back when taking this image so everyone could really see what was happening. The girl in the air, Layla, was actually being swung over the front of the stage - however it's not very clear in this image as we cant see where the stage ends. 

Despite the the purple lighting slightly over powering, I really like this image as they're all in sync and there are some interesting shapes going on. The bent arms and spread out hands make the image look very interesting as it looks quite busy. We can also see that it is quite a hard dance move. They're tap dancing and if you look closely you ca see they're on the heel of their front foot, but the toes of their back foot.

With this image I again made it black and white to really focus on the dancers and their emotions. This was taken during a quick partner sequence, so I needed a quick shutter speed. we can see in Katie's face her emotions within this dance, but also through her extended arm as she is really feeling the movement. I really like this image as it shows us how two dancers can interact with each other. 

Analysis of studio images

In this image I placed Pippa right in the centre so that the main focus is on the position she is holding and it almost looks like she's stepping out of the image. You can also see a series of shapes which make the image look pleasing to the eye, such as the right angle with her legs and he slightly curved line of her arms. These shapes also show the beauty of alignment and technique within dance. I kept this image quite a warm tone to link with happiness as Pippa is smiling, which shows how she enjoys dance. I took this at an eye level vantage point to emphasize on how she is jumping into the position and to make it look like she is jumping out of the picture. I used reasonably bright lights to get a clear focus on Pippa and really highlight her posture.I used a high shutter speed, around 1/200 so I was able to capture the quick movements, If I had used a lower shutter speed then the image would have been blurry. I had quite a medium aperture, around f/5.6 to allow light into the lens to result in a clear focused image.In Photoshop I did minimal adjustments such as using the spot healing tool on some blemishes and the clone stamp tool to get rid of some mucky marks on the white floor. I also increased colour levels where needed to really make Pippa stand out. I really like this image, even thought it is a simple position, it still shows how alignment has to be perfect and Pippa is making dancing on Pointe look easy. 

In this image we can see Steph doing the splits and again, I have placed her in the centre of the image so the main focus is on her flexibility skill and how beautifully she can do the splits. I incorporated shapes and technique of a leading line from her front foot to her back foot and I took this at just above eye level vantage point so we are slightly looking down on her in the image - almost as if we are pushing her down into the splits. Again, I kept the image at quite a warm tone to make it more pleasing to the eye. Lights again were reasonably bright to highlight the alignment of Steph's body and really emphasize the position she is holding. This was a still position so I didn't need as high a shutter speed as I didn't need to worry about the image blurring. Again, minor adjustments in Photoshop such as spot healing, clone stamping and slightly adjusting colour levels. This is one of my favourite images, because although we cant's see Steph's face, the image still show's a beautiful side of dance and how flexible dancers are/need to be. 

For this image we can see Pippa holding an 'Attitude' position in the air. I decided to place her at the top of the image to show how high she has jumped.This image is very interesting as there are a lot of shapes visible. The main one we see first is the kind of right angled 'S' shape of her legs and this shows us one of the many weird, but wonderful dance positions. Another feature that stands out is Pippa's hair and the way it floats and flicks back, this could emphasize on the freedom you have when dancing. So not only has she had to jump high, but she also needed the energy to jump into this position, this again, shows the strength needed in a dancer. Colours again I kept warm to reflect on the happiness and freedom of dance. Although she is high up in this image, I took it at an eye level vantage point to show how high she had jumped. Same for all my images I used bright lights to really capture the positions of the dancers. As this was an action shot, I needed a high shutter speed to be able to capture the motion of Pippa jumping, so I set it around 1/250 and it took a few attempts to get an image with Pippa at the full height and extension of the position. Again in Photoshop got rid of minor spot blemishes and cleaned the floor with the clone stamp. However this time I also sharpened Pippa's back foot as is was slightly blurry. To sharpen it I selected it with the quick selection tool, feathered it and then smart sharpen where I could adjust the radius and sharpen levels myself. By sharpening it, it made the foot look a little clearer and less blurry. I like this image as it shows us the amount of energy and passion needed to be able to jump high and pull off a move. 

In this image I placed Pippa in the left third, rather than in the middle to make it look more interesting. Also because she is leaning back, her head/hair is just off centre which makes it the first main focus. There are a few shapes in this image, the straight lines of her arms and legs, but also the arch in her back. You could say it's a leading line from her feet up her legs, round the arch in her back to her floppy hair. I particularly like Pippa's hair in this image as it again links in with the freedom of dance as it is just hanging there, but it also makes Pippa look pretty.I decided to make this image black and white to really emphasize on the shape of her body and her facial expressions. It also looks softer and more pleasing to the eye as we're not having to focus on all the different colours. Putting it in black and white also allowed me to highlight the contours of the body better because in Photoshop I was able to adjust how dark/bright the contrast was of the blacks and whites, so I made the blacks really contrasting to the whites so they stood out.This image I took at eye level vantage point as I asked Pippa to look into the camera so we could see the emotion in her eyes-which is another key concept of dance, it's all about expressing your emotions. 

Here we see another motion shot image of Steph. I placed her in the centre to really show how much her body has curved pulling this move - showing how flexible dancers are. The main shape in this image is the 'C' shape from the curve of her back, but also the straight lines of her arms and the slight right angles where her legs bend at the knee. Also these shapes not only make the image look interesting, but also show all the different shapes and alignments in the beauty of dance. Again, Steph's hair is also at freedom and I feel it makes the image look even better as it shows the motion/direction she was traveling, and how much effort, energy and emotion was needed to pull it off. I kept this image in colour to really bring out the warm tone and Steph's beautiful ginger hair. In Photoshop I slightly adjusted the colour levels such as the contrast and vibrance to give it a warm tone and make Steph's hair really vibrant and stand out. This image was taken at eye level vantage point to show how far back and low down she has arched - to really show how agile you have to be as a dancer. It took a couple of shots to get a good image like this because the motion was really fast, so I used a high shutter speed, around 1/250 to really capture the motion. I really like this image as shows the more contempary side of dance and the freedom you can have, with the more abstract moves and positions, rather than set alignments you have in ballet. 

This picture is more of a still image as Steph was able to hold the position, so it was easier for me to capture it. I placed her just left of centre because her arms and legs are stretched out and I wanted her to fill the whole frame so we immediately look at her. Again we can see several shapes and lines in Steph's body which makes the image more interesting to look at. Some people (non-dancers) might also be surprised when they see this image, because not everyone can get their leg that high in the air and they will then realise how hard dancing is. I made this image black and white as I feel it makes the image look softer. The contrast between the black and white also really highlights the alignment of the body allowing the viewer to really focus on the beauty of the position. I took this image at eye level vantage point so I was at the same height as Steph to really show off how high she has got her leg. If I took it from a high vantage point, looking down on her, it might not have looked like she would have got her leg as high. I kept the lighting the same brightness during the shoot so that all my images would be the same brightness/temperature. Because Steph was able to hold the position I didn't need as high a shutter speed because I wasn't capturing fast movement. In Photoshop, I did minimal adjustments such as spot healing and clone stamping to get rid of the dirty marks on the floor. To make the image black and white I put the saturation right down then adjusted the levels to really contrast the blacks from the whites. I really like this image because Steph makes it look so easy and shows her emotions - which is what dance is all about, even though it is really hard as there are a lot of things you have to remember. 

Here we see another image of Steph and I placed her in the left third to show where she can travel to next - which would be forward. Again, the main focus within my images is the position of the dancer and the interesting shapes. Here we can see a triangle on the inside of her legs where her knee bends and the kind of backwards 'L' shape of the arms. These simple shapes produce a beautiful looking dance position. I kept this image in colour to really bring out how she naturally stands out against the bright white background. Her ginger hair and red lipstick really stands out making us focus on her and her personality and you wouldn't have seen this as much if the image was in black and white. Like most of my images I took this at an eye level vantage point to really emphasize  how their emotions for dance comes from inside them. Steph was able to hold this position, so I didn't need as high a shutter speed to capture it. In Photoshop I did minor adjustments such as spot healing, but I also raised the vibrance and contrast to really bring out the focus on her hair and lipstick. 

Here I placed Pippa in the centre of the image, but I wanted the main focus to be on her raised leg,which is why I took it from a low vantage point, so I was looking up at her and put her foot in the left third. It also is a leading line because we read left to right, so because her foot is in the left third, we look at that first, and then her leg leads us to the rest of her body. Again shapes are important as they make the image look interesting but the shapes are what make up the dance positions. I decided to make this image black and white so that we really focus on Pippa and how she's really feeling the movement to bring out her emotions. This was quite a slow movement, which really allowed me to get the composition right whilst she was doing it and I didn't need a very high shutter speed as she was able to hold it - which shows us the strength within dancers. I like this image as it is something different and from a different view. It's also more of an abstract/contemporary position. 

In this image, when cropping it I placed Pippa at the top to really emphasize how high she jumped. I also took it at an eye level vantage point so the viewer can again relise how high she is.This also shows how a lot of energy is needed to be a dancer. Shapes are also important in dance and photography as they are what makes them look interesting. Here we see the parallel lines of her straight leg and arms and a 'V' shape with her back leg. I really like Pippa's hair in this image as it shows us how free you are when dancing and I also think it gives the image an extra element of beauty.I made this image black and white as it makes it softer and more pleasing to the eye, allowing us to focus more of the dance position, rather than the colours. This was a very quick movement/position so I needed a high shutter speed to capture the motion at the right time. I had it around 1/300 and I used a continuous shutter to be able to catch the best possible image through the dance motion. I kept the lighting the same throughout my shoot, which was bright so that it would really highlight the position of the dancers. I like this image, mainly because of the freedom of Pippa's hair and how it helps to show natural beauty, but also the obsqure shapes which hold this dance position.

For this image I placed Steph in the left third to show where she had jumped to and this could metaphorically show how she's left everything behind her, and is just concentrating on her emotions in this dance. I took this image at an eye level vantage point so I could get the full length of her body in shot without looking down or up on her. Although there isn't any visible/common shapes here, there is still the arch of her back and her straight leg and arm. My favourite thing about most of my images is the dancers' hair. Here we see Steph's lovely ginger hair being whipped back freely through the motion of the jump. Her ginger hair really contrasts well with the deep blue dress, which also floats through the dance motion making it more interesting to look at and this is why I decided to keep it in colour. This was another quick movement so I needed a high shutter speed to capture the motion. In Photoshop I adjusted the vibrancy and contrast levels to really highlight the deep blue and ginger to make them stand out and be the main focus.I also used the clone stamp and spot healing tool to remove a beige strap on the dress going over Steph's left shoulder. The colour of it didn't blend in with her skin and was actually quite eye catching and was distracting the beauty of the image, so I removed it. I really like this image as it shows the beauty of dance through colours.

For this image I placed Steph in the centre so that she would fill the whole frame so that the focus would be centre. Again this image was taken at eye level vantage point and as you can see, we can only see the back of Steph. She was doing turns,which is quite a fast motion, so I needed a reasonably high shutter speed. I also used a continuous shutter to capture different frames of the spin, and I particularly liked this one as she is completely facing the back, not on an angle/diagonal and we can see how the dress flows as she spins. I made this image black and white, apart from the dress because as we can't see her face, so we cant really see her emotion as much and the black and white reflects this. However, I wanted to really highlight the beautiful flow of the deep blue dress which is why I kept it in colour so it would be the main focus point. Again in Photoshop, I erased the dress strap that went over the left shoulder. I duplicated the layer and from this I was able the put a black and white layer on top, then erase over the dress to bring out the blue. I really like this image and it is one of my favourites because it's simple yet effective. It doesn't matter that we can't see Steph's face because the beauty of dance is still shown through this still image and expressed through the colour contrast.

This is my favourite image from the shoot as it really does show the beauty of dance and I was quite proud of myself to be able to capture such a good image. So here we see Steph and I cropped the image so that she was in the centre as the main focus point. I took it at an eye level vantage point to really emphasize on the amount of energy she had put in to arch backwards. There are lots of shapes going on in this image, but the main thing we see is the way the blue dress has flowed with the motion of the dance movement - this again shows that energy has been put into the movement. The bent leg and pointed feet show the technique in the movement and the arched back and curved arm shows the creativity to help give across the emotion. I decided to keep this image in colour to really bring out the deep blue dress which makes the image very eye catching and interesting to look at. This was a quick motion so I needed a high shutter speed of around 1/250 to be able to capture the motion. I also used a continuous shutter to be able to pick out the best image from the whole motion. In Photoshop, I again erased the dress strap over Steph's left shoulder using the clone stamp and spot healing tool as it was quite distracting in the image. I also adjusted the vibrance and contrast levels to really deepen the blue dress. I really like this image as it shows the freedom of dance with the free flow of the dress and her hair, the energy put into it brings out the emotion. I also like this image as it is very sharp and isn't over or under exposed.