Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I recently attend a workshop in studio dance photography conducted by Lois Greenfield.

She uses a MF camera with a digital back set to 1/250 sec shutter speed and Broncolor lights with flash durations of 1/3000 sec or so.

I cannot afford Broncolor equipment but I am wondering if I might be able to do a low cost simulation of her set up with the Einstein strobe with my DSLR set to an shutter speed of 1/250 sec.

I also have some White Lightnings that I would like to use as my background light and as a secondary light. Would the longer flash duration of the White Lightnings cause some problems with the shutter speed I am selecting. I.e., would all my strobes have to be Einsteins?

Thanks in advance.

Einsteins should not have any problems in freezing action in dance, even at a reasonable power level, 1/3000 t.1 time is pretty high. Is the 1/3000 figure the t.1 or t.5 time of the Broncolor? Depending on the White Lightning models you are using, they will probably be the limiting factor, but they may or may not adversely affect the action freezing.

Thanks!

I have two White Lightnings X1600's and one X800. I would use the 800 for a "hair light" and a 1600 for supplemental opposite the Einstein. This would be a black background set up.

For white backgrounds, I would use the X1600's to light the background.

What do you think?

Of the lights listed, the X1600 set to 1/4 power mode (slider set to full) will have the fastest flash duration at 1/2000 t.1 time. Then the X800 at full, then the X1600 in full power mode. This means an X1600 in 1/4 power mode (slider at FULL) is faster than an X800 set to -1f, but they have the same power.

Alec

how was the dance class? i wanted to take that workshop with LG.

I would also love to hear how the class was. I am using Einsteins and trying to find the best solutions as well.

I am not in a place right not that I can engage in a lengthy discussion of the workshop which I will do (if there is interest) when I return home early in December. (I would then be interested in an extended discussion of any and all aspects of dance photography in any forum.) For the time being, I would say the workshop was an excellent learning experience. The workshop participants used LG's equipment and dancers she hired for the occasion. This includes a Leaf digital back on a Hasselblad, Broncolor lights, and professional dancers from NYC dance groups. Everything was great especially the dancers who were young (21-25), beautiful and very eager to please. They were paid $75/day (a different group of each day) and have rights to any photos taken of them. Each participant (8 of us in all) get a couple of series of shots each day with whichever dancer(s) he/she requested within reason; some dancers were overworked.

It is amazing what beautiful dancers and great equipment will do. You can see what I did in the Dance -> Studios sessions at www.alechimwich.com. You can also see there some other previous stuff and assess part of the difference that the resources of the workshop made.

Lois herself took a light (excuse the expression) hand in guiding us. Both she and Jack Daeso (#1 tech assistant) were very open in sharing anything about their approach which is basically to fix as much as possible to "focus" on the photograhed moment.

Cheers,
Alec