Yesterday I went out on a two location promo shoot for a local dance company. They specialize in Hip Hop and Jazz. Not everyone does both and there are 13-14 members in all. Lighting conditions where pretty good but I was always fighting the sun. Directing large groups is tough. I was really picky on where I wanted everyone to stand and even when I got the photos in post production I still wish I had caught a few things.
I took a lot of shots and different poses. Here are a few favorites.
1. Not my favorite outfits from the shoot but definitely the best poses collaboratively. I used a 3 point lighting system. Large softbox behind me and two strobes one both sides of them. The sun was very bright so everything was on full power.
2. A close up shot. Nobody ever smiles. haha! I didn't catch it until post but there is a green flair on the right side of the shot. It could have been prevented by turning the light cone around or pulling it back. Some flare is cool but some is not.
3. Two hours later and everyone arrived at the jazz shoot location. I had hoped to be closer to sunset by the time we arrived but we were indeed way ahead of schedule. Although this wasn't intentional, the first thing out of peoples mouths are.. "OMG Americas top model!"
4. After the group shots I took individual shots. Each dancer was able to choose their pose. I didn't like all of the poses but I did the best I could to make them look good.
5. I wish I had more time to work with them on the individual poses. With 13 dancers in all i had spent about 1-2 minutes with each of them. Give me 10 min with each of them and I could have worked on their posture, expression and a little bit more on the lighting. I dislike mass production/assembly line photo shoots but sometimes the client wants it to be quick.
6. It looks like a CGI effect but that sun was really hitting those thin clouds and creating that ring effect that you see.