Ballet Magic Photography- capturing the artistry of a ballet dancer in the studio
Beyond the fact that Michelle, an amazing dancer, a studio portrait using seamless white photography. I love this style because it brings the focus on the subject as the background blown out to pure white.
Ballet Magic Photography settings
To make the effect work you need white background. A pure white background can be made grey or black just by moving the lights away from the background. Move the light away from a white surface and it will turn grey and eventually black.
To blow out the white, you need 2 strobes firing at the backdrop while a third light on the subject from the front. The front lays usually a softbot.
The subject needs to be placed enough distance from the backdrop or the light bouncing from the backdrop with spill on her and overexpose her. The most challenging part of the shoot- keeping the backlight off her.
I try to meter the backdrop for f11 and the subject for f8. That 2:1 ratio works pretty well.
You can tell Michele is exposed correctly because of warm her tones. If you want to see what happens if you let the background light spill on her look at the arm behind her.
As I add a photo booth to our wedding packages, seamless white work best for our clients.
