"The pictures you make are like a connect-the-dots game that becomes the line of your life, as real and vibrant as the lines on your face and hands. We tell stories with our pictures. In turn, our pictures tell our story - what we did, and how well or poorly we did it, and very significantly, if we stuck with it." - Joe McNally
One Light, Two Very Different Looks
This past weekend, I did a promotional shoot for the Center Stage Dance and Performing Arts studio in my hometown, the beginning of what I hope will be a lasting relationship. The purpose of this shoot was to create a promotional poster to be displayed in the studio for some upcoming portrait shoots at the studio, including individual and group shots. Some of the groups will be rather large, and the individual shots may be static full-length portraits, tighter headshots, or aggressive jumps and leaps. There won't be time to change the lighting setup between shots, so the set and lighting grid will have to be broad, open, and flexible to accommodate shooting changes on the fly. Typical dance studio environment for me.
But the point of this blog post is that broad, open static lighting setups can still yield vastly different results, with only minor modifications and no change to the basic lighting grid or even exposure settings in camera.
The two shots above were made with the same single light, in the same position, with pretty much the same exposure values in camera. The shot on the left is Brooke, made before we started, as nothing more than a lighting/exposure check. I wanted to make sure that my key light, a monolight mounted in a 53" octagonal softbox located 45 degrees up at camera left was positioned so as to capture light in the eye sockets and not leave them "hooded". I placed Brooke about five feet from the octa and asked her to simply look at me and we made a test. It was fine in terms of light placement, so I asked her to look at the light, and the result is what you see on the left. The gray background you see is a big Westcott "Pearl" backdrop mounted horizontally to give me 24 feet of lateral coverage for a large group. It's lit with another broad fill light in a 60" umbrella at camera and two more lights in stripbanks at the wings to guarantee even fill across the entire sweep. But for all practical purposes, Brooke is lit entirely by the key light in the octa. The exposure was made at ISO 200, 1/160 second at f/7.1 (to give me sufficient depth of field for a group shot). I tweaked the exposure a bit in Lightroom, giving me what would effectively be f/6.3. Done deal. I didn't measure the light at various places on her face, but the lighting is pretty even, showing decent but not overly dramatic rotation between light and shadow. Very forgiving light, good for fast production shooting on a schedule. I went manual for the rest of the day at 1/160 at f/6.3.
As we moved through the planned shots for the day, Jacqueline took her turn, dressed in a black costume with a neat, intricate hoodie. I knew right away that I wanted a dark and moody headshot with the black hood enveloping her face. But with everyone waiting and much more to shoot, there was no time to change the lighting grid or the set. How to accomplish what I envisioned for Jacqueline? Easy. Bring her right next to and parallel to the octa, add a black panel behind her to cut the pearl backdrop and attendant lighting on it, and hold an additional 2 stop diffuser between the octa and Jacqueline. She's about 8 inches from the octa's front diffuser, and the handheld 2-stop is no more than 3 inches from her shoulder, just out of frame. The location and power level on the key light haven't changed and the exposure value in camera is still f/6.3 at 1/160.
But the difference is dramatic. The light is much softer; the shadow rotation is rich, and the effectively larger source of light wraps around the hoodie into the recesses of her face next to her eyes. This is all due to the proximity of Jacqueline to the key light and extra diffusion between the light and her face. These two images couldn't be more different. The time needed to set up this second shot? About 30 seconds.
As is so often the case, thanks go to Joe McNally for this one.
Nutcrackin'
For the past three years I've had the pleasure and the honor of photographing the Pacific Theatre Ballet's production of "The Nutcracker Suite". Under the direction of Ann-Marie McClellan, the production draws its cast from the Pacific Ballet Conservatory and spends months in preparation, choreography, costuming, and rehearsal, culminating in a weekend of six performances at the Laguna Hills Community Center.
My part of the process begins with portraiture, which occurs on one day a few weeks prior to the performances. This year, with a growing cast, the challenge was to keep things fresh throughout the very long day of shooting. The lighting setup has to be open and flexible, enabling the girls to cycle through in about five minutes each, giving us precious little time to shoot a number of poses for the families to consider. They range from traditional ballet poses, to poses with props, and sometimes as whimsical as we can make them. I light them with a key light in a 53 inch octabank from a traditional 45 degrees up and over position (from the left this year), supplemented by a broad fill to give me an approximately 2:1 ratio, with two back 45's in strip boxes to accent and separate the girls from the background.
The performances, as noted above, are held in a multipurpose room at the Laguna Hills Community Center. I've described this location before. It's a small stage, maybe thirty feet wide by twenty feet deep, lit by nothing but overhead cans. Sometimes a light from above can be missing, but when they're all working, the lighting is predictable, warm, and surprisingly flattering.
From the back of the audience, shooting with a 70-200mm lens, you can get the entire stage, and get what might be called "record" shots of the production. I don't mean to discount these shots, because the cast is really good, and you can pick up some nice images.
But I much prefer to capture these dances from the sides, and focus on individuals or small groups of dancers. With the amount of light available in the room, shooting at 1/250 is about all I can get, and at f/2.8, the depth of field is pretty limited. Also, shooting at acute angles means the stage is also angled, which presents another limitation. But from these angles, you can really focus in on the dance skill of these performers.
As nice as this venue is, one thing it is not is "grand". One of my dance photographer colleagues, Ron McKinney, recently showed some marvelous Nutcracker images of the Ballet Chicago on a very large and very brightly-lit stage. His sweeping images were stunning, but absolutely impossible to get in the intimate setting of the Laguna Hills Community Center. Instead, I go in an entirely different direction. My favorite images from this production are those that capture the expressions of joy that these performers display. One of my favorite performance lessons comes from hip hop choreographer Shane Sparks, who once told my daughter's class that performing on stage is like selling shoes: "If you ain't sellin' it, the audience ain't buyin' it!" These ladies knew how to sell it. I think they sold it, because they genuinely love it.
As I write this on Christmas evening, one of the things I'm grateful for is the opportunity to get to know this community of dancers and their families, and to photograph them doing what they love to do.
Working the Scene, Part II
In my previous blog post, I talked about "working the scene" to eliminate distracting elements from the periphery of otherwise strong photos, and refining the images to bring something unique to what might otherwise turn out to be rather ordinary renditions of even extraordinarily talented artists. I wound up with a really cool take on an image of sax virtuoso Euge Groove. I ended with a look forward to the next show at the Murray Center with Brian Culbertson.
There are three things I know about Brian Culbertson. First, he's a very talented musician, as are all of the folks that hosts Gary Bergeson and Kelly Bennett bring to the Murray Center as a part of KSBR's ongoing series of live performance radio broadcasts. Second, Brian is a versatile musician on many instruments. I've seen him perform at the annual KSBR Birthday Bash on keyboards as well as the trombone. The third thing about Brian is his exceptional energy. It's seen not only in his trademark spiky hair, but also the stage presence he projects during his performances.
Which is why I was looking forward to trying something a little more edgy with my shots of Brian at last week's radio show. He did not disappoint, starting out his set with a high-energy, up-tempo rendition of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" (it was, after all, the beginning of December, and time to do this sort of thing). From there, Brian stuck with the keyboards. His keyboard playing style is interesting. Especially in this setting, playing the Rowland in front of a more "mature" audience (it's the Norman P. Murray Senior and Community Center, by the way), Brian's style was measured, nuanced, and different from what I expected. I probably have over 100 photos of Brian, and in most of them (including the shot above), his eyes are closed either leaning closely into the keyboard or serenely looking upward. Not that the music wasn't beautiful; it certainly was, and the audience enjoyed it immensely (as did I).
But as the set progressed, I finally got the shot I envisioned from the outset. It's a simple treatment actually, with almost all of the editing done in Lightroom, except for the removal of some distracting elements in the frame that required more intricate masking in Photoshop.
Now THAT'S the Brian Culbertson I was expecting.
I don't know who's next up in this continuing series of broadcasts, but I'm definitely going to continue to explore different post-processing techniques to bring out what I consider to be the essence of the performers as I see them.
Working the Scene
I usually like to open my blog posts with an image, hopefully a somewhat interesting image. But this one needs a little setup.
One of the lessons we learn as photographers is the need to "work the scene". It means looking at all of the visual elements and photographic possibilities inherent in a given location, with an eye toward composition. It's most frequently employed in landscape and architectural photography, where the scene doesn't change, but the position of the photographer and camera angle can change in relation to the scene. It's also used in portraiture, so the subject can be placed in a way that minimizes background distractions and renders the subject in a more compelling way. Most folks aren't typically aware of this process; they look at an interesting landscape and fire away without knowledge of how the eye moves through (and hopefully stays within) a photograph. Or they focus on the face of the person being photographed, and fail to notice the tree seemingly growing out of the person's head.
I've posted quite a few photographs here that were made at various live performances during broadcasts of KSBR's Gary and Kelly Show at the Norman P. Murray Center in Mission Viejo. These broadcasts are great fun for those who attend them, and they give me wonderful access to incredibly talented performers. I've also commented on the benefit of repositioning myself during a performance to get a more interesting background. But today I want to take this concept a little farther, not only in terms of working the camera angles, but also exploring the performer in greater detail.
This opportunity comes by way of the realization that at this particular venue, with the audiences' chairs set up the way they are, and video crews located where they are, there are only about five unobstructed camera angles available to the photographer: center rear at eye level, stage left (high or low), and stage right (high or low). So the more I shoot there, the more challenging it is to get fresh, compelling images that differ from those previously made.
Such was the challenge I faced last Saturday when sax virtuoso Euge Groove performed hits from his recent release "House of Groove". The morning of the performance was bright and sunny, rendering the window behind the stage (although covered by a drape and some light) completely unusable as a background. Sometimes, if the weather is cloudy, this can be overcome, but today, no way. Here was the starting point:
Euge sounded great, but visually...yuck.
So we move to the side, try to minimize the window as much as possible, and hope to get a good look at Euge talking with host Gary Bergeson, and place him in relation to his publicity picture on the stage. We get a nice expression that shows what kind of guy Euge is, but that window is just killing the shot:
Okay, gotta get rid of the window altogether. So we move to the tightest view from stage left and wait for him to step forward during his set:
Nice shot, but one I've taken a hundred times from this same vantage point. I like the light from this angle; it's short lighting that provides a nice loop lighting pattern on the face. But we need to do something more. Maybe a tighter composition with a little more expression from Euge. He's working hard, and with the hot lights, he's starting to get red in the face and sweat:
Not bad, but not that different, either. So what can we do now? What about a totally non-sax-playing portrait of Euge enjoying the applause from the audience after performing one of his hits? This one requires careful observation of the performer and precise timing to capture a look of inner satisfaction, rather than simply a reaction to the fans themselves.
And finally, what can I do to create a different kind of look from all of the others that I've captured at these wonderful performances? How about a darker portrait, softer but with deeper contrast, out of the specific context of this venue? I think the application of different treatments specific to each performer is the direction I want to explore more as I continue to work this particular scene.
Next up with Gary and Kelly: Brian Culbertson on December 8. I'm pretty sure I'll be using different, grittier techniques for him. I can't wait!
Jordan Matter's "Dancers Among Us" Redux
Back in March, in one of my first blog posts here, I wrote about a fantastic opportunity I had to work with Jordan Matter, who was working on a three-year effort to publish a book based on his "Dancers Among Us" project. It was a fantastic opportunity to watch Jordan at work, and to contribute to the project by bringing him two amazing local dancers I know, as well as to scout, suggest, and coordinate locations for Jordan while he was here in SoCal. There was only one caveat; I couldn't release any photos that I took that might be similar in composition to those that Jordan made, prior to the publication of the book. Well, the book comes out later this month, and just today, Jordan released the names of the dancers whose images will be included in it. So I conclude from these two facts that it's now okay to show you what we were up to on those two days. These photographs are mine, not Jordan's. Some were made to give Jordan something he could use for his own purposes (showing him at work). Others were shot alongside Jordan, or from a different angle.
The first location I suggested was the famous entrance to Grauman's Chinese Theater, with the handprints and footprints of Hollywood's elite. A shot of a dancer in Fred Astaire's or Ginger Rogers' handprints would be cool, and Jordan agreed. So here's Kevin Williams doing a handstand, but in Jack Nicholson's handprints. Why not Astaire's? Because Fred Astaire had these little bitty hands, and Kevin dwarfed him. Here's Jordan shooting Kevin in one of about 100 takes, before security kicked us out.
After Grauman's, Jordan wanted to consider a location in the Hollywood Hills where there might be a sweeping vista of LA. I knew just the place, so off we went, and Jordan captured Jamila Glass hanging off a fenced-in communications tower with LA in the back. I don't think this shot made the book, but I do believe that Jamila, who went out to Joshua Tree with Jordan the day after we did this, will be in the book. By the way, it's a long way down below Jamila.
When I first contacted Jordan about this opportunity to work with him in LA, I had two high school dancers in mind, Lauren Rauen and Caitlin Pulone, both of whom could easily perform the kinds of amazing leaps, poses, and characters that Dancers Among Us embodied. Jordan envisioned an out-of-work actress in front of the iconic Paramount Studios gate on Melrose Avenue, and I knew that Lauren was the perfect dancer to pull this off. So I made a sandwich board of a previous headshot I made of Lauren, and a stack of 8x10's for her to hold. Jordan amped up the concept by asking Lauren to hold them in both hands as well as one foot. We ducked into an alley so Lauren could get comfortable doing this very tricky pose in the middle of the street, and when she was ready, out we went. She performed flawlessly.
Jordan wanted to photograph Caitlin in a bookstore, and I suggested Book Soup on the Sunset Strip. It was long after dark when we arrived, and Jordan talked his way into shooting Cate on a bookshelf ladder. The staff at Book Soup was more than happy to accommodate us. I put a pair of reading glasses on Cate, and here's what we got.
It was a long day of shooting, and we got back to OC after 11:00. Time to crash and burn, because tomorrow would be another long day. The first location I had suggested to Jordan was the Walt Disney Concert Hall. I had photographed Cate there on a previous occasion, and it was a sample from that shoot that got Jordan interested. So we met there, along with a bunch of dancers who had responded to Jordan's casting call.
We met in front of the WDCH and Jordan briefed the dancers on how the day would go. While Jordan was talking with the dancers, I made this tight profile of dancer Mysti Rose.
She would later pose in this partner shot with a male dancer whose name I unfortunately didn't record, in a location I had used with Cate previously.
Jordan is a very creative guy; one of the shots he envisioned at WDCH was to put this same male dancer up in a tree, reading a book. Okay, a reasonable, kinda predictable shot. But no; Jordan's concept was for him to hang upside down in the tree, reading a book. Something like this:
From here, we went down to Skid Row, where Jordan photographed Terry Beeman in front of the Continental Hotel, not exactly the Ritz, where just a few days before, somebody got whacked upstairs. This shoot was high-concept, and Terry pulled it off very well, first staggering (artistically) in the street, and later in this pose in front of the hotel.
One of the dancers we brought along that day was Melinda Marchiano, a young dancer from the Central Coast area. Melinda loves dance, and she's a very good dancer. What sets Melinda apart, though, is the fact that she's a cancer survivor and has published an amazing book on her experience. It was her love of ballet that inspired her through recovery. Here she is, down in the Toy District, with her book, titled "Grace". The eerie, depressing mural provides a reminder of what she must have gone through on her journey back to health. But Melinda is anything but depressed; she's an inspiration.
Moving through downtown LA in mid-day traffic can be daunting, especially when you're traveling in a caravan, with drivers who aren't that familiar with the territory. Especially when you're pulling illegal U-turns in the middle of Skid Row so Jordan can check out a location. Especially when you're two guys who are dancers, and acrobats, who don't exactly frequent Skid Row. And especially when you get pulled over by LA's Finest, and get a ticket for said illegal U-turn. That experience was enough to cause our two intrepid acrobats to depart the neighborhood for safer, more familiar digs.
Fortunately, we met up with them later that evening in Beverly Hills, at Two Rodeo, on the corner of Wilshire and Rodeo Dr. I had suggested this location earlier, as it has a very European feel, with a winding walkway down a faux hill. Jordan captured them at the prime location of this retail development and made a photograph before we got kicked out of this place, too.
Jordan Matter spent two more days in SoCal, but I had other commitments, and could not join him on those two days, as he photographed dancers in Venice Beach and all the way out in Joshua Tree National Park. Nevertheless, it was an experience I won't soon forget, and one which has strongly influenced me in how I will approach my own location-based dance photography.
"Dancers Among Us" will be in bookstores later this month, and can be pre-orded through the usual online channels. Check it out; it will change the way you think about dance and dancers.