Photographing a Dance competition

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GemGem

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Gemma
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A friend of mine has asked me to go along to a dance competition to take some pictures of her and her dance partner throughout the day, The competition is being held in a ball room, so I am assuming the lighting will be quite poor as it will be a large room, I would like to get some pictures with movement and some without movement what settings would you guys recommend?

I have a canon 450d with the kit lens, 50mm lens and a 55-250mm lens as well as a flash gun, I would be willing to hire a lens if this kit really isn’t good enough but would prefer to use what I have if possible to keep the cost down!

Any help would be appreciated as I haven’t done much movement photography before.

Thanks

Gemma
 
Hello Gemma.
That sounds challenging. I'd have thought your 50mm would be ideal, but you may have to push the iso to its max to get usable shutter speeds especially if the lighting isn't good. Personally, I'd avoid using flash during the dancing, may be too distracting? If use of flash were allowed, using second curtain would produce some interesting effects (but not with the inbuilt flash, I don't think). Use the flash to capture them with the winning trophy at the end! Sit on the floor, or stand on a chair, vary your height for different shots.
 
if its your first try,I would not try and be too creative,getting well framed and exposed pics will be as much as I would hope for on a first attemt,without some good lens your will struggle with that never mind "fancy shots",with your kit lens I wouldn't think your will have much choice in the settings you have to use,you'll be luckly just to get a correctly exposed shot,I would think the 50mm will have the widest apature, so I would be using that the most,lets see the results you get,good luck.
 
Assuming that you will be pretty far from the dancers, the flash range will not be enough and in any case it would probably leave your backgrounds pretty dark if shutter speed is high enough to reduce motion blur to acceptable levels..

So fast glass is your best (maybe only) option here.. I would take my 70-200/2.8 and 135/2L on an outing like that.. but without knowing how far you would be from the action it's not easy to recommend a lens to hire. The 85/1.8 is a pretty cheap one to consider.

Looking at some of my own pictures taken in ballrooms, I'm seeing ISO 1600, f/2.8 and 1/60 to 1/125 sec exposures. With the 450D you don't want to go ISO 3200 so I definitely would recommend a lens with f/2.8 or larger (smaller number!) max aperture.
 
GemGem said:
A friend of mine has asked me to go along to a dance competition to take some pictures of her and her dance partner throughout the day, The competition is being held in a ball room, so I am assuming the lighting will be quite poor as it will be a large room, I would like to get some pictures with movement and some without movement what settings would you guys recommend?
Click to expand...

Check what the organisers will allow.

Flash would not be an impossibility for something the size of a dancefloor, but may not be allowed if it would distract the competitors.

It's a competition.. will you be allowed to take pictures with a "professional" camera (the general public tends to look at the size of the camera, not at the credentials of the photographer), or have the organisers sold the photography contract to an event photographer? Or do they want to keep the image rights for their own marketing? Are there juniors also competing? Does the venue allow photography?

Some basic questions you need the answer to before you plan on shelling out for lens rentals. At the moment it's just a request from a friend who is competing, she may not even have thought of these types of issue.
 
Thanks everyone for your advice, i am going to go along to some rehursals with them and play with the kit i have and see if i can get anything reasonable with my kit, if not then i will look at hiring something.

Alastair
Quote:

It's a competition.. will you be allowed to take pictures with a "professional" camera (the general public tends to look at the size of the camera, not at the credentials of the photographer), or have the organisers sold the photography contract to an event photographer? Or do they want to keep the image rights for their own marketing? Are there juniors also competing? Does the venue allow photography?

Some basic questions you need the answer to before you plan on shelling out for lens rentals. At the moment it's just a request from a friend who is competing, she may not even have thought of these types of issue.

Thanks for your advice Alastair we have checked about photography as I thought it may be an issue, Personal photo's are aloud as long as you don't get in the way of the dancers or judges, so it should be fine. I will be only taking pictures of my friend when she is dancing of them so hopefully I wont get any issues, but I am fully prepared for someone to question me just because I have a DSLR, hopefully if i can prove i am just taking pictures of my friend they will be ok.
 
Alastair said:
or have the organisers sold the photography contract to an event photographer?
Click to expand...

Personally, I certainly wouldn't worry about being approached by a working event photographer. I've occasionally seen someone using professional level gear at an event I'm shooting, but normally within about three seconds you can work out that they are not another pro, and are just there shooting their friends/relatives/whatever. Most of us aren't in the habit of checking what other people with cameras are up to, we'd never take any photos otherwise!
 
THis is all about shutter speed and you need a fairly quick one to stop motion - Might be good to catch them when they are moving least. Flash will help freeze motion too to a degree. Your 50 f1.8 will be the only lens you can use as anything slower than f2.8 just won't hack it and I'd guess even f2.8 at high ISO would struggle!
 
Experiment with shutter speed. If you're too fast and completely stop the motion they will look like posing statues. Go with some faster, some slower and you'll have a selection to choose from.
 
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