Dance photography is one of those genres that can be challenging to any photographer though the results can be immensely rewarding.  It’s challenging since more that having a picture of people dancing, you need to make the viewer feel the movements and enjoy the dance even if it’s in just a single frame. And of course it goes without mentioning that other technical aspects like lighting, camera settings and angles can pose a challenge especially to amateur photographers who are venturing in this field for the first time.

We cannot generalize dance photography tips and techniques since there are various dance styles and all have their unique movements. Some styles are more vigorous than others and all will need different settings and set up. However, most of the dance styles will be captures with almost same techniques and so this article will shed light to genera tips and techniques that are commonly used in dance photography.

Setup and settings

Photographing a dance movement in a studio setup will be different from randomly clicking couples or individuals boogying on the dance floor. In a studio setup, one can easily ask the models to control the movements in order to have the perfect shot and change the lighting accordingly, but in dance floor it all depends on your skills as a photographer and a little bit of luck. We shall focus more on the dance hall or uncontrolled form of dance photography.

Since dance is more about movements, shutter speed settings will be vital for your photography. Basically, if you want to have a bit of blurring on the photo, you need to use slow shutter speed settings, something below 1/60. You may need to apply trial and error method here since each setting may give you a different result. A very slow shutter may complete spoil your shot since it will look too ghostly. For slow dance movements like waltz and slow jams, lower shutter speeds can produce great result especially if you can capture a couple that is just about to swing while the rest in the ball room are in motion.

Rajat Ghosh, a top ranked photographer in India and the owner of Rajat Ghosh Studios in Mumbai says that timing is an important ingredient for a good dance photograph. He say that for one to be successful in capturing a dance movement just at the right time, he or she needs to first take time and master the movements before going ‘ballistic’ all over the dance floor. Ghosh say that every dance style has a certain ‘peak’ moment when the action seems to be stationary even for a fraction of a second and that is when a photographer should freeze the frame.

Always use manual settings instead of auto since many dance photos are captured in low light and the movements are fast. In ‘Auto’, the camera tends to ‘think’ first before taking the photo and this will make you lose vital time. ISO settings depend on the amount of light present but in normal dance situations ISO of above 400 or 800 will do for you. 

Photo by Ganesh Gopalakrishnan / Fotosocial

Lighting

Many at times you may need to use a flash while taking dance photos. It advisable however to use external flash with trigger mechanism instead of the internal one since the external flash will allow you to take photos from a longer distance apart from reducing occurrences of red eyes in your photos. External flashes also give your images more depth from the shadows they can create, something that you may miss if you use the internal flash.

Focusing

In low light and with movements involved, it may be very hard to get sharp images when the camera is in manual mode. Peace Mecha, an amateur photographer based in Boston Massachusetts says that she manually estimates the distance of the action from the camera and then calculates the depth of field. She then focuses on a certain point of the action and zoom in and out gently till she gets the focus she can work with. Throughout the shoots, she keeps her fingers on the lenses but makes very slight adjustments to avoid messing up the focus.

Final step

Dance photography is not only a way to express your creativity as a photographer but it is also a measure to it. If you can pull out great images from the dance floor or ball room, then you can toss to your success. One word of advice though: if the situation allows, never leave a tripod behind. It may reduce the number of ‘ghosts’ in your photos at the end of the day.

	Quick read: Dance photography is challenging since more that having a picture of people dancing, you need to make the viewer feel the movements and enjoy the dance even if it’s in just a single frame  Since dance is more about movements, shutter speed settings will be vital for your photography if you want to have a bit of blurring on the photo, you need to use slow shutter speed settings, something below 1/60 It advisable however to use external flash since it will allow you to take photos from a longer distance apart from reducing occurrences of red eyes in your photos