These shots were taken on location in a dance studio. There was a lot of light bouncing around in there, but not enough for pretty headshots. I set up the shower curtain hanging from a boom. Since the client was my wife, it was fine to use these materials without a more cosmetically ‘professional’ presentation.

I wanted you all to see how easy it is to adapt the lighting ideas in the DVD to strobe. I used the natural light coming in from above and behind as a hair light (shutter speed 1/50) and the strobe behind the diffuser as a main. I brought the fill in very tight for a nearly even lighting scheme. You can see the 430EX I had started to use as a backlight before settling on the natural light. It was so harsh and the natural light was so pretty.


One of the things you will notice about this setup is that it is a large group and it is shot with small, camera-mount type strobes. Hey, light is light. I was lucky to get some natural light for the headshots, but I wanted to make sure that the medium shutter speed wouldn’t allow for too much blur. I did a few tests and determined that I was ok.

I also shot some action shots. With a slightly lower shutterspeed, I was able to catch the action, but extremities had a little motion (feet, hair and hands) as they were moving the fastest.

My last shot involved shooting the whole cast of this dance company. It was to be my wifes last concert as a dance teacher (retired now… writing and managing) and so the title was “The Final Chapter.” It was a challenge to keep the dancers in the light and not behind the books, but taking time and not getting frazzled is the key. This is the shot as it is going up. Important to notice the fill card that is extending down from the umbrella on camera left. Without it the light would not have been even and would have dropped off on the ladies on the floor. The diffuser worked well. but to get that kind of ’spread’ on the left side of the image, I had to work in a bit more fill to extend to the ground.

All in all, a simple shoot with a fun group and they love their images. Oh, and here is the Final Chapter Image as it was reproduced for posters and presentations.