Reshoot Of Mexican Dance Images - Advice Requested

[rpcrowe]

This Saturday is the Cinco de Mayo (Fifth of May) celebration at Old Town San Diego. I experimented shooting Mexican Dancers using a slow shutter speed last year in Old Town during the Day Of The Dead celebrations. Here is one of the results...



This was shot using ISO 100 at 1/10 second @ f/11 at 97mm with the 70-200mm f/4L IS lens on a Canon 5D Mark 2

I plan to reshoot the Mexican Dancers on Saturday, this time using flash on a Canon 6D2. I plan to spend the whole morning photographing the dancers. I will use Second (Rear) Curtain sync for some shots which should allow me to capture the swirl of the dress but, hopefully will freeze the face and upper torso. I also want to shoot using a multi-flash (stroboscopic) effect. If I get one "perfect" shot of a dancer, I will be quite satisfied. Naturally I would hope for more than just one...

I would like to use a wider f/stop and will be shooting the dancers with my 70-200mm f/4L I lens. Going by last years tests, I think that if I reduced my ISO to 50 (shooting with the 6D Mk2) that would allow me to open the aperture one stop to f/8. Additionally, placing a one-stop ND filter on the lens would allow me to shoot at f/5.6 which is about as wide open as I want to shoot. I am hesitant to use a greater density ND filter because that density filter may slow my auto focus. If I find my auto focus is impaired to any great degree using the one stop filter, I will "bite the bullet" and remove the filter and close down the one stop.

The stage is located in a shaded courtyard with absolutely nothing off which to bounce my flash. I will most likely use my Canon 600ex-RT flash on a Stroboframe Bracket modified with a small softbox. The flash will be triggered with an Off-Camera Sync Cord.



I will be sitting in the front row (getting there early will ensure that) and the edge of the stage will be (this is from memory) about 10-feet from me and the depth of the stage will be approximately 20-feet (so the dances will be between 15 and 25 feet from me.) The width of the stage is about 30 feet or so. Once the performance starts I will not be able to switch my position.

Do you recommend me using TTL or manual flash? I am leaning towards TTL since the distance will be constantly varying. I can always vary the flash exposure using FEC. The touch screen of the 6D2 with the Q-Button menu makes this type of change very easy and quick.

I also plan to have the camera on manual exposure with the ISO locked in at 50 (rather than using Auto-ISO). Once the dance starts, the ambient light exposure will not vary by any great degree.

I kind of like the 1/10 second exposure but I will also vary that up and down. I will have quite a while to shoot the dancers but very likely will not be able to reshoot until another celebration (probably close to the end of October for the Day of the Dead).

I would really like to elevate the flash on a pole but, this would probably greatly annoy the folks sitting directly behind me.

Any clues for nailing the exposure for the stroboscopic flash images. I am a bit concerned that any part of the dancer's body which is not moving will receive more light than the parts that are moving. I do realize that this will be a trial and error procedure.

Are there any other ideas you might have for improving my way of shooting this.

[Shadowman]

Richard,

Where exactly will you be pointing your flash, will it be directly at the dancers or will you try to use bounce flash, either way I'd reduce intensity of the flash and just bump up the ISO as much as possible.

[rpcrowe]

John,

There is absolutely nothing off which to bounce the flash. No walls anywhere nearby and no ceiling at all. I could use my Joe Demb Flash Diffuser Professional and aim the FlipIt portion of that diffuser 5 degrees forward. This works but, I lose quite a bit of flash power.

The small softbox has a pair of baffles to diffuse the light and even though, given the distance between the flash and subject the softbox becomes a rather small light source, it is still softer than using a straight flash.

Actually what I'd like to use is a large folding beauty dish and a fairly powerful strobe like the Flashpoint Streaklight 360ii (marketed under Godox as well as several other brand names). That would give me a soft light but with still more contrast that a softbox. However, I could not use that because it would block the view of a significant portion of the audience.

However, I don't think that the amount of light will from the flash be a problem. The reason I am shooting at a low ISO is that I want a wide aperture to separate the subject from the background. That is fairly difficult to attain with a shutter speed of around 1/10 second...

[Manfred M]

Richard - I suspect that you really want to throw a very tight beam of light that is just directed at the parts of the dancer that you want to freeze (primarily the head). The rest of the body and costume really need to be in motion to get that blurred effect. With an outdoor shoot, I suspect that direct flash is the only way to go; Speedlites don't have a lot of power, especially at longer distances. Overpowering the ambient light will be tough.

Does your Speedlite have the capacity to narrow the beam? I know on mine, I can do so but I have to set that manually. On my big light I can shot at 90mm focal length, like you did, but have the light come out as if I were shooting at 200mm. I also wonder about the snap on grid; I use grids in the studio all the time and have seen them offered for Speedlites, but have no experience with them:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...Honeycomb.html

Ultimately, I think you are going to have to go the trial & error route to figure out what works. There are just too many variables and shooting in a crowd definitely limits the equipment you can bring.

I have the Godox Witstro AD360 (which is the previous generation of the Streaklight you mention). It is far too large and heavy to mount on the camera; it really needs to go on a light stand. I use it as a fill light, so I can get away with a bit harsher light. It really is not practical for an event shoot.

[rpcrowe]

Manfred, great idea about using a snoot. have a couple of snoots designed for small Chinese Studio strobes that I might jury-rig to fit on my Canon 600ex-rt flash which I would use mounted on the Stroboframe Bracket. I might need to doctor the rig with some gaffers tape but, it might work. I have two days to test the set-up.

I will try several varieties of lighting. Since I am only after one shot or so, I will not be walking around the Cinco de Mayo celebration so I can use a bit of extra gear. As long as it doesn't interfere with the view of the other spectators...

I will try: bare flash, flash with small softbox and flash with snoot. Another idea might be to use a Flash X-tender. Since this is designed to focus the light when using a 300mm lens, it "just might" give me the focused beam I am seeking.

Of course, the "proper" way to get the image I am seeking is to bring the dancer to a studio (preferably with a black seamless background) and light the shot the way that I want to. However, I am not ready to go through the trouble and expense that would involve...

[Mike_E]

You might want to play around with rear curtain flash sync a bit. It gives a leading edge blur (makes little sense but google for images and you'll see).

Add to this some zoom burst and you can get some really interesting shots.

Good luck

[rpcrowe]

I got thrown off the track (literally) a bit at the show.

I opted to sit at the end of a wooden bench. There were two people sitting in the middle of the bench. They were a counterweight to my weight at the end of the bench. They got up and the bench tipped over with me landing on the ground.

I did shoot some after that but, my mind was not really on it...



After the bench collapsed, I had to move to another spot. The only spot open was with the speckled leaves of a tree in the background.



I ended up going home after the first performance. My butt (and my pride) were sore and I was really a bit peeved...

Being peeved also had a bit to do with my equipment! This time I shot the dancers using my 6D Mark 2 and 70-200mm f/4L IS lens. I found a serious lack with the autofocus array of the 6D2. The array has been borrowed from the crop sensor 80D and plopped right into the full frame 6D2 without and consideration that the 80D is a crop sensor camera and that the 80D focus point array would sit crammed into the center of the full frame 6D2...



The result is that when I am shooting in Servo AF, I cannot place a focus point on the dancer's face without either focus and recompose (cant do that AFAIK in AF Servo) or just shooting and cropping. Using my 7D2, I simply choose an AF point (or group of points) at the top of my frame where I expect the dancer's head to be.

When shooting portraits, it is no problem to focus and recompose but that is difficult, if not impossible when shooting in Servo AF...

A way around this would be to use Live-View. Then with dual pixel AF, the entire frame is applicable for focusing. The focusing is not limited to specific points in the AF Array. Downside of this is that I was sitting in the bright sun with the sun to my back while the dancer was in shade. I simply could not see her in the LCD.

Using a Hoodman Loupe and using face detection autofocus would solve that problem... However, IMO, it is a PITA to have to work around a problem like this when using a relatively new camera...

I do love many of the attributes of the 6D2 but, Canon really dropped the ball in some very important areas such as AF and Dynamic Range. I can live without 4K video but, some people cannot!!!

Canon could not decide if they wanted to produce a hobby camera or a professional tool! They tried to do both and made some unfortunate compromises...

[Shadowman]

Hope its just a bit of soreness, I sometimes get distracted (mostly by people) when out on a planned excursion.

[rpcrowe]

Since the debacle of shooting the Mexicandancer with my 6D2, I have been investigating the Face Recognition capability of the Live View in the 6D Mark.2 camera. Here is a video on that capability...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bg-5EWDvQE&t=159s

The Dirkson video I actually wanted to reference was of photographing in low light levels in a dance in Germany using the Face recognition of the 6D2 and the Canon 85mm f/1.2 lens, wide open or thereabouts. The camera nailed the focus on the faces of the dancers. Dirkson even mentioned that he thought the 6D2 might be more accurate this way than the Sony cameras with eye recognition - I don't know about that!

Like I mentioned, I have a bit of trouble working with live view in bright conditions because of the glare on the LCD (even with a shade). I have experimented using my Hoodman Loupe to eliminate the glare on the LCD. I fastened the Hoodman on with the elastic band accessory from Hoodman.

Good news and bad news Good news: the Hoodman Loupe does shield the LCD and make it a lot more visible. Bad news: the elastic band way of attaching the Hoodman Loupe to the camera is not at all secure...

So in the interest of being able to use the 6D2 for subjects like the Mexican dancer, I purchased a GGS Swivi HD DSLR LCD Universal Foldable Viewfinder Version II on Amazon...

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Since I purchased this from Amazon, I can return the item if it doesn't worked as I hope it will or if it doesn't fit my camera with the battery grip...

If it does fit, I will sell my Hoodman Loupe. If it doesn't work, I will fabricate a mount to attach the Hoodman to the 6D2.