These are pictures I took of my youngest daughter Fernanda and friends dancing flamenco for a charity a couple of months ago. I made the pictures with a M3 hand held and with available darkness waiting until the dance allowed a brief stop to shoot. That accounts for the somewhat rigid stances which don't really show the grace of the girls at this Spanish dance. Any advices telling how to do it better but still with no flash will be wellcome. By the way: can XP2 be pushed, say to ASA 1200 ? Thanks in advance for comments / help.

-Iván

-- Iván Barrientos M (ingenieria@simltda.tie.cl), August 18, 2001

Answers

Often I find myself in a similar situation photographing a staged cultural dance in another country. The use of shutter speeds slow enough to convey action by way of moving limbs and clothing but fast enough to catch the face sharp (luckily most of those cultural dances the body movements are wide while the head remains relatively still) is a technique I use quite a bit, and I think it worked well for you also. Quite often I will use a table tripod so that any blur is caused only by subject movement. The use of really fast film is something I avoid, because I want the slow shutter speed while keeping a wide enough aperture to blur out distracting background artifacts like stage lights and walls and doors around and behind the stage. We don't notice them with all the sensory input at the time of shooting (music, lights, smoke)but they "magically" appear on the images later. Another thing I will do sometimes is switch to a medium tele and get some head-and-torso shots of individual dancers -- your daughter would probably agree! Lastly, if there's a possibility to see the performance twice, the second time you come armed with knowing what to expect, where to shoot from and when. I've learned that the more prepared I am, the luckier my shots get ;>)

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), August 18, 2001.

Get in closer, isolate your subject. Shoot vertically. Light so her hair stands out from the background. Shoot wide open on a tripod. Make sure she's moving. Shoot at between 1/8 and 1/30. Expose a lot of film.

http://www.ravenvision.com/peterhughes.htm

-- Peter Hughes (ravenart@pacbell.net), August 19, 2001.

It sounds to me like you may want to avoid showing motion blur. If so, my approach would be to use a faster lens &/or faster film like Delta or TMAX 3200 or Neopan 1600 (if your lab knows what it's doing, XP2 & T400CN can both be easily pushed to 1600 if necessary just like any real B&W film). The extra speed (allowing you to go to 1/125th, for example) is essential if you want to stop faster movements & go beyond waiting for peak moments. I would also 2nd Mr. Hughes's suggestion to move in closer (if possible) & experiment more w/framing.

-- Chris Chen (furcafe@cris.com), August 19, 2001.

Oops. Made a mistake posting my picture. It should show up he re

-- Chris Chen (furcafe@cris.com), August 19, 2001.

My answer (apart from Peter's suggesion which may not be practical) seems to me to be to shoot Delta 3200. It is a marvellous film - grainy, but sharp and gives plenty of atmosphere for this kind of shot - you can freeze motion - you may be shooting at 1/125 or even higher at full aperture. I develop it in Microphen. XP2 only really goes up to 800.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), August 20, 2001.