Recently, I have the opportunity to photograph a ballroom dancer, Tyrone, in a portrait session. He is not only an instructor in ballroom, but he also does hip-hop and contemporary dance which makes for some great photos. In this nice neighborhood, it was a challenge to find a background that was appropriate for the usual grungy backgrounds that accompany this type of dance. Tyrone was a great subject climbing into a tree to make it look like a setting much different than the suburban park that we were shooting. Being in a tree, and his clothing really made for a changing the setting with limited resources.
Outside Portraits
Then we found a nearby gazebo that he used to display his dance moves. I used the gazebo to try to get some nice even shade for photos, then added the flash to fill him in the frame of the structure. I also experimented with the flashes as hard side lights. Punching these up in post processing made for some interesting portraits that work better with male subjects. With the photos where he was hanging at one side of the gazebo, I used a super wide angle lens to emphasize his stretched frame making him look longer. I was trying to work the setting that we had to get a variety of photos.
The last section we went to was against a fence lining a walking trail. Fences always provide leading lines to point to your portrait subject, but I was looking for something different. Using the flash, I happened upon a happy accident. I was hoping that placing the flash on the other side of the fence would make for some sharp repeating shadows that would fall on Tyrone. This did happen a little, but the reflective paint on the slats of the fence created hard reflections against each other which focused the light. This made a nice vignette to light that I could use in the portraits. This is definitely a new trick that I will have to remember for future shoots!
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