Portrait of a Dancer

Posted by admin on Apr 3, 2010 in Photo Shoots | 3 comments

On Friday, April 2, 2010, I went to visit my friends and fellow photographers Shad and Jason of Red Door Photography. They had taken my wedding photos (I HIGHLY recommend them!) two weeks prior.  They were also hosting an open house for the First Friday celebration in Bellevue, KY where their studio is located.  One of the people who showed up was Mandy – a model they use for their Greater Cincinnati Glamour Photography group.Mandy is a joy to work with. She knows how and where her limbs are is very comfortable in front of the camera. She is a beautiful brunette with a compact shape and lithe limbs.

I knew from that point, she and I were going to work well together. The red dress compliments her skin tone, and the shoes (while flats) were perfect knowing she is a dancer and they allowed her to move. Eventually, we pushed her to a more symmetrical shape with more dramatic lighting:

While setting up for this shot, Mandy remarked that she really was liking the spotlight effect, and wanted to work more with it. The light was from a single speedlight into a 20˚ grid on a boom directly overhead. This was shot on the same white seamless as the prior shot (ambient killed using 1/200th of a second shutter speed at ISO 100 – f-stop somewhere around f/9)

Working with the spotlight theme, we moved off of the seamless and into the dank, dark regions of the boiler room (this studio is awesome! 3000+ sq ft, and lots of “looks”).

This shot was done using the same overhead spotlight, but a bare speedlight was placed in front of her on the floor to light up her legs.

Many thanks to Mandy – she was a real pleasure with whom to work. She brought energy and humor to this impromptu portrait session that is always great to have. I felt like she and I really worked together to get some great images.  Here are a few more.