Robert Harris Robert Harris

SISTERS IN DANCE /// REZE-TIANA AND CARI-JUANÉ WESSELS

Meet these gorgeous girls, Miss Reze and Cari! Two sisters i got to work with who are both amazing dancers. I had the chance to photograph a little of their dancing, and get to know them a little bit.

Heres one of Reze:

and one of Cari:

These were taken late last year, very simple set ups, in their garden at home. Both of the girls do Ballet, Contemporary and Jazz, and they used to do Irish dancing. Cari also does Spanish dancing, of which Flamenco is her favourite. 

It was an absolute pleasure working with them.

All of it was shot with simple speedlight set ups and shoot through umbrellas. I shot them all around 1/800th using HSS to sync the flashes. Flashes were both set to 1/2 power to maximize the light, and keep recycling time to a short time.

Gear we used for this shoot:

  • Canon 5d mk iii
  • Canon 50mm f1.4
  • Canon 85mm f1.8
  • Peak Design Slide strap.
  • Yongnuo yn500ex speedlights x 2
  • Yongnuo 622c triggers
  • Kata Backpack
  • 2 lightstands
  • shoot through umbrella

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Optical Noise photography:

Reze and Cari

Craig Anderson (Foto_fotography) Assistant

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Have a good day everyone!

cheers!

 

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BEING ON POINTE /// PHOTOSHOOT WITH NATASHA HEUSER EHLERS

I have such a big admiration for dancers in general, but with ballet dancers. There's something incredibly powerful about how strong they are, about how poised and controlled their movements are, and the willingness to keep going over and over, especially when trying to get the shot during a photoshoot.

I had a chance to work with the ever so gorgeous Natasha, a ballet dancer based in JHB. We actually did 2 photoshoots within the span of a month, as her shoot was meant to be done in PTA with the iconic purple Jacaranda trees that we often see in South Africa, but due to a time issue that was delayed and we did her first shoot at Gold Reef City casino, which worked just as well. So during this talk you will see images from both her photoshoots. We hope you like them like we do :D :D :D!

I really enjoy working with this girl. When it comes with dancing we need to work hard to get my timing in sync with the dancers time. Plus make sure the flash is actually hitting the model and all the settings are correct. So we often doing the same jump a bunch of times to be sure it looks awesome, and mainly make sure the technique shown in the dance move is correct. So im glad dancers are willing to do it "one more time" like a hundred times HAHA.

With dance photography, to me its most important to get the timing right. With any dance style there is always correct technique. Your photo can look amazing, lights and colours are awesome, but if the technique is incorrect, then its a bad bad image, and most dancers wont like the shot nor show it to anyone. Toes being pointed, lines from legs looking right, hands and so on, all contributes to making a dance shot work. I often ask the dancer if this is right or not and can we redo it. As much as i know a lot about whats right n wrong, the dancers knows more. So ask!

ok now for gear and what we did to light the model.

With dancing we always shoot with very high shutter speeds. from 1/800th to about 1/2500th. You would be surprised to see how much motion blur you get on feet when they jump up and fling their legs  to position. So we used speedlights which are able to do HSS. We used 2 yongnuo yn500ex flashes mounted to one bracket and triggered wirelessly using a trigger. This allows the flash to sync over the usual 1/200th max sync speed.

For the bridge shoot We used a normal shoot through white umbrella to diffuse the light, but not too much to take away much of the distance from the flash. 

For the shoot with the Jacaranda trees we shot during 11am sunlight which is very bright, but luckily we were then easily able to use the high shutter speed along with the flash. We left the flashes bare, no umbrella this time. We just covered the flash head with wax paper which just diffused it a tiny bit, but maximised the distance the light would travel in bright sun.

Gear set:

  • Canon 5d mkiii
  • Canon 50mm f1.4
  • Canon16-35mm f2.8 L
  • 2x yongnuo yn500ex speedlights
  • yongnuo 622c triggers
  • light stand
  • wax paper
  • white shoot through umbrella
  • peak design slide strap
  • kata backpack

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check out my sponsors:

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Please follow us all on social media:

Optical Noise photography:

Natasha

INSTAGRAM: click here  (@tashehl)

    Craig Anderson (Foto_fotography) Assistant

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    Heres some more photos! Until next time!

    cheers!


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    A look into my dance photography

    Hey all I know that I have been quiet since I left on my trip to Cape Town in July. During my stay I had my camera bag and gear stolen and it kind of threw me off quite a bit. So lets get back into it.

    I have decided to start off with sharing some info about my dance photography and why I adore it so much. Also a little info into how I freeze motion with flash (speed lights)

    I have always been around dancers, and now recently I have been able to photographed a lot of dancers. Which makes me very happy.  :D

    Some was photographed using flash, and some of the older shots were shot without flash. Most recently I have been working a lot with speed lights so that I can utilize the High Speed sync function.

    With dancers moving so fast you sit with the decision of is the slight or heavy motion blur ok or not, do you prefer frozen solid or a slight feel of movement? I try getting both, all depending what I feel is more important at the time. Most of the time a sharp frozen in time is key for me.

    Now to make a dancer freeze solid you need to shoot with a very fast shutter speed, and with most sync speeds of 1/160th or 1/200th is way too slow. Especially when it comes to break dancers or ballerinas. Some of the moves they remain still and that’s easy enough but when a foot or arm has to be swung to get to the climax of the movement then the shutter speed is key.

    I have noticed that anything under 1/800th is never sharp. So my go to speed for these shoots are 1/800th and 1/1000th. I would go faster but the flash can’t handle it always and I end up killing the flashes. When I get more speed lights this will be more suitable. For now I work off 2 yongnuo YN500ex flashes. Which are around 1/4th power or 1/2 power. Full power also kills the flash when fired too much, and I usually mount both on one bracket, and either bare or with a shoot through umbrella depending on the light situation.

    With HSS you need a much higher power output to make it affect the image at all. Do a quick test shoot a photo at 1/200th, then at 1/250th. The difference of HSS is seen easily.

    I only use Eneloop pro batteries, which goes a long way when I do this.  They recycle quite fast and don’t overheat easy.

    Using flash just allows you to create a very unique light effect on the dancer, which creates contrast and makes it different. Shooting without flash at super high speeds is pretty simple. If you can anticipate and time the move nicely that’s all it is, but with flash the look of the image using strobist techniques will create a nice feel.

    Here is a photo I took in Jhb CBD a while back of bboy Lab-A . No flash, just high iso, with a canon 85mm f1.8 wide open and the only here’s we had was an above streetlight

     

    Then here is a shot of Bboy Curse in Cape Town shot using high-speed sync (1/2000th)

     

    I love speed lights because of the uses they have. I have completely moved away from studio strobes. If I could afford a strobe like an elinchrom ranger or profoto B1 then maybe id do that. But even with my in studio work I have been using only speed lights. Maybe I will do another write up on using speed lights to do studio work. Just remember light is light, however you can get it into the shot, it will work.

    I can do a more in depth write up on the exact settings for each shot if you guys are keen to know more. But this is my introduction: D

    Check my site

    www.opticalnoise.net

    Instagram @opticalnoise

    Keen to hear from you all. Lets hope they publish it.

    I will try attaching a bunch of images to this as well.

    Enjoy

    #Speedlightsonly

    More of my dance photos with and without flash all together

           


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