We planned on a out door photo shooting for Sunday Oct 24. But the weather turned ugly on San Francisco and forced us to shoot in Studio 2 at Lines Dance Center. It was dark inside. I debated about using flash vs using available (low) light. Looking around the studio, the huge window facing market st provides such a beautiful background and a even backlight, making it very hard to resist.

The key in high key image is not so much about the amount of light rather than the quality of light. Yes it is a dark day, but the white interior of the studio provides a even illumination. Since the sky is much brighter, I knew if I put the model in front of the window, over expose the sky, I can get a nice high key lighting. Thanks to modern DSLR technology, ISO 1600 used to equal to highly grainy image in the film days, now it is very acceptable. So set the ISO to 1600, and throw the lens wide open (2.8) and off we go.

The window light is heavenly, and the models are just like angels. They turned out going really well together. Even in a sunny day, the light inside the studio is dark, so a common urge is to use flash fill. With a flash fill, you can get a much crisp image, and “correct” color. The problem though, is that the highly directional light from flash kills the heavenly mood from the window light. I used flash last time with Saki with this same backdrop to get a dramatic mood as well as matching the exposure to the interesting building outside. This time however, I want a beautiful dream kind of mood. So flashes stayed in camera bag.

There are several challenges for shooting high key image in low light. Mainly it’s hard to get faster enough shutter speed to stop the motion, overexposure of the background washes out the contrast making it difficult for lens to render clear sharp lines, and good skin tone is very difficult to achieve.

Like so many things in life, you have to look for the opposite to achieve a balance. In low key image, you look for strong light for drama, in high key images, you look for dark area and lines to define the image. Megan’s dark dress worked superbly in this lighting by providing an anchor to the images, so does Jackie’s hair color.

Photography is very much a discovery process as well expressive process. It is always a joy going into a session without much expectation and say things starts to grow.

On Facebook Album

I’m afraid monkey won’t pass this intelligent test. They don’t yet have language capability for identifying some formal elements in their “creation”. Everything for them is intuitive.

Formal elements allows the artist to work in a conscious way, it allows him to work at a higher level. It’s tools that he can choose to use. Although, sticking to the formal elements too strictly may causes the work to be rigid, and unimaginative.

So what are formal elements in dance photography?

Like language, which is always evolving, formal elements in photography depend on cultural background of the person viewing the photo. it changes from person to person, and it evolves with time. Here are some formal elements I found very useful for my purpose.

Key.

Like major and minor keys in music, high key and low key in a photo strongly affects the overall emotional mood. High key images fills the space with predominantly white, it gives impression of abundance of light. The mood it renders is usually uplifting. Low key images on the other hand fills the space with predominantly black. Light is most likely strongly directional. The mood it arises can be mysterious, emotional intense, and powerful.

Like music has keys in C, D, G…, overall color theme in a photo casts different mood to the image. Like music can be written without a dominant key, many photo don’t show a clear color tone too. Some time, it is a conscious choice.

Movement

One way to work in photo is to find movement in stillness, while video is to find stillness in motion. In a still photo, movement can not be presented literarily, it has to be inferred. A perfect snap shot of a bullet in air appears to be motionless, even thought it is traveling very fast. Several techniques can be used to to infer the movement, like motion blur, strong perspective distortion, and converging lines.

In situations where movement is to be expected, stillness works the wonder. Like this water drop, frozen in space and time, creates a new reality.

Rhythm

Rhythm in music is the interplay of regular and random in cutting the time. Repeating patterns in time domain translate time into something still. Causality, the arrow of time progression no longer exist. Something in the future becomes the past. It is time disappeared. Totally repeating patterns are not usually interesting though, unless you are in a trance. Certain unexpected elements need to be included to break the symmetry.

An interesting thing about time is that it disappears in a repeating pattern, it also disappears if everything is totally random and unrelated, as causality is absent. Although human brain is constantly looking for relationship even in places it absent. So we can construct certain artificial causality. Many art work use this to create interesting effect. Too random though, our brain will give up.

In a picture with many repeating patterns, rhythm becomes an important formal element of the photo. In music, it transforms time, in image, it transform the space. Spatial relationship is replaced by interaction between those repeating elements. Taking example of the sequence “…ABABABAB…”, is A on the left of B, or B on the left on A?

Perspective

In life, we like to say, “It’s all about perspective”, or, “change your perspective”. So should we in taking photo.

Monkey picks up camera and just shoot whatever. Human on the other hand, are aware of many factors, like camera direction, angle, height, distance to subject, even the focal length of lens. Perspective is related to all of those and also, it is about how you place you subject in it’s environment (put in context), how you contrast foreground and background.

Perspective plays the major role in telling story using photo. In a way which focal length do you use determines how you tell story.
Tele-lens pulls the subject close to the viewer, provide viewer a safe distance to observe. The images are powerful. Psychologically, viewing a image by tele-lens is “close” and yet kept in distance. The focus is usually on the subject itself, and the environment is usually not important.

Wide-lens on the other hand, forces you to include the environment, it put the viewer right into the location or event. It is excellent in telling story in the context of environment. Used right, the strong perspective distortion creates movement and drama.
The danger of wide lens is also in it distortion. We feel something is not “normal”. We would like to believe the experience, but we are not quite convinced.

Then there is “normal” lens, or called standard lens. In 35mm days, that means 50mm. For large format, it can be as long as 180mm. For most digital SLR these days, it is usually between 30mm to 35mm.

Normal lens produces most “normal” images. It sees the world in a perspective just as how our eyes usually sees it. It is also the most difficult lens to use. Without the drama of wide and intimacy of tele, normal lens forces the photographer to place himself in the scene at the right perspective for all those drama and intimacy naturally happens. Obviously this is very difficult. But done right, it produces photos that really draws the viewer in and is very enduring.

There are other formal elements in dance photography. They are tools to use in making effective images. Like tools, they are meant to be updated and replaced when time is right.

Carmina Burana was composed by Carl Orff in 1935 and 1936. It is based on 24 of the poems found in the medieval collection Carmina Burana (from Latin, means “Songs of Beuem). This collection was mostly written in 11th and 12th century, found in 1803 from a monastery.

Excerpt from some reviews from the show:

From Catherine Pawlick of CityDance: “In all, the troupe’s warmth and emotion were palpable from stage to audience. That Labayan has put considerable time and thought into this production is readily apparent. Feminine strength is highlighted here,
and what better vehicle for it than generous, truthful movement that expresses the range of gifts on offer from the fair gender. “Carmina” is powerful, gritty, and inspirational, a true gift to Bay Area audiences.”

From Stark Silver Creek: “But by far the real highlight of the performance was the lead dancer for the piece, Brazilian-born Daiane Lopes. Her movements were powerfully dramatic but controlled and crisp, her lines were evocative and well-suited to the music,
and her eye contact and facial expressions were intensely dramatic, engaging, and powerfully evocative. Her various solos were real tours de force, especially “Circa Mea Pectora”. ”

From SF Bay Guardian: “The women’s physical stamina was as impressive as their contagious energy. They moved through everything from extremely fast-paced jumps and leaps to slower, more lyrical, classical ballet poses with zest and playful charisma. Nothing seemed too difficult or too grand. Incorporating classical ballet, folkloric dance forms, and more sensual modern movement, Labayen’s elegant and exciting choreography emphasized the women’s versatile strength, but it was the all-female cast of badass dancers that not only brought Carmina Burana to life, but ultimately brought the admiring audience — screaming and stomping — to their feet.”

For more photos of the event, see the Facebook Album.

Several of my friends are dancing/acting in this performance. Market St has changed a lot over the one and half centuries. And people walking on the street has changed too. This fabulous site-specific performance pull the viewers right back to 150 years ago. To see more photos from this project, go to my facebook album:

Sailing Away

(Copious Dance Theater)

Yes and no. Creativity is about discovering patterns that previously haven’t been noticed. It means breaking the rule. So it is about creating freedom. And yet this freedom can not exist if it is too free. Complexity theory tells us that a system that is totally random is as complex as a rigid system. For example, imaging you have a bunch of sands in a box in a 0 gravity space. The free flowing sands represents a total randomness. Naively, we will think this is the most complex condition. But because each sand has no relation with the other, the total complexity (entropy) is the same as fixing them on a regular grid pattern, which is them simplest configuration.

Now, imagining each sand particle starts to interact with it’s neighbor in certain way. Suddenly emergent pattern will occur, and the whole system will display high order behavior that is not possible if it is totally random. We see those effect in life all the time. Snow flake, flower, water wave, sound wave, or ultimately life and human being.

(Labayen Dance/SF)

Those interactions between sand particles is a limitation on how the sand can move. Without those limitations sand particle will just move on it’s own mind. Those limitations made higher order behaviors (wave, wind, life) possible. So that is a very good hint on our human creativity. Our creativity can not exist in total randomness, or total freedom, it’s own possible when there is some sort of limitation.

(Paco Gomes and Dancers)

When I shoot dance in a dark theatre, I found the own lens works well for me is 50mm 1.4. I have tried other lenses, like 24-70mm 2.8L. 35mm 2.0. 85mm 1.8. Somehow I always come back to 50mm 1.4 + EOS 5d. This has became a game for me. In how many different way can I use a 50mm standard lens? It turned out I benefit greatly from this process, a self imposed limitation.

(Paco Gomes and Dancers)

50mm gives the most normal perspective on a full-frame body. The image it produce is the most natural to eye and thus least dramatic. It forces you to find drama and story from composition, angle and light. This has been a great exercise for me every time I take it to a theatre. How can I find the essence of dance through a 50mm lens.

(Labayen Dance/SF)

There are some unexpected benefit of limiting myself to a single focal length. Since I don’t have to (can’t, really) zoom to change composition, I can easily pre-visualize the scene before picking up the camera. Which allows me to react to dance much faster. Dance usually happens very fast. 1/10th of second often determines a good photo from a useless one. Know when, where the action going to happen, and how the composition will be like before looking through the lens is a huge advantage in dance photography.

(Paco Gomes)

Of cause with the modern camera technology you can shoot 8 frame/sec with a good camera. Which means as long as you keep shutter pressed you won’t miss a shoot. Well, imagining the time spent going through all the photos. Also consider the fact that a good (and unique) moment in dance performance comes often as a surprise, unless you are very familiar with the dance, or, are satisfied with common dance leaps, arabesque, attitude, etc.

(Dance Wright Project)

So who is the father of creativity. I think it’s the desire to create. With out the drive to create, a limitation is just a limitation that frustrate you.

(Paco Gomes and Dancers)

On a side note, limitation is a important part of creative process, it also make a strong influence on the baby created. Imagine driving a race car on desert bed, or racing a hummer against race cars on race track. Or, just imagine having a ballerina doing a funky hip hop move, or asking a fantastic street hip hop dancer to do a triple pirouette.

(Paco Gomes and Dancers)

Give monkey a camera, it can produce some very interesting image, so give human being a iphone camera, he/she must be able to shoot some interesting dance photos.

Iphone 4 back camera has 5 meg pixels, selective focus, and a large display for you to preview. It even has a tiny flash. The best part is that it is always with you.

(Daiane and I ran into this huge ink painting outside of Shanghai modern art museum. Thanks to the constant availability of iphone, we were able to quickly snap these shots, the light is very harsh and strong, I don’t think a professional SLR will do much better in this situation. Unless you use flash fill. Daiane, the most beautiful Chinese girl dressed in traditional Qi Pao, was very inspired by this painting. An on-site improv was not unavoidable.)

With iphone camera you can’t adjust aperture, shutter speed, and you can’t prefocus. Also 5 meg pixels is obviously over kill for that tiny lens and sensor. And of cause, the low light performance is no where near adequate, unless the moody motion blur is what you are after. But after seeing every photo displays the same blur, you kind of want to have to an option of getting a clear shot.

When Paco Gomes & Dancers did a on-site performance in Jao Jou Saloon in Oakland, we need to take some photos, but I didn’t have a “real” camera with me. So again, iphone was there to save the night. With some experiment, I was able to get decent percentage of sharp shorts, at least look sharp at iphone screen resolution.

I actually appreciate the simplicity of iphone camera. By limiting your technical options, it forces you to compose and plan more creatively. It makes everything more spontaneous.

Iphone camera is unique because it is always available, produces decent image quality, encourages spontaneity,  and it has a lot of limitations. I think it deserve some serious exploration for using in dance photography.

Very often, a limitation is also an opportunity for something fresh and creative. You just need to approach it with an playful mind. Like a monkey.

Answer: you will have to wait couple millions of years for monkey to evolve into next human race.

What if you give monkey a camera? Chances are you will see interesting images pretty soon. You will see images that challenge your perspective and your imagination. So often we settle into a way of “doing things” and it become very hard to see things from different angle.

To understand means we have to use our language. Language is acquired and is deeply entangled with culture and society. Our language gives our power to understand and connect, but it also is our biggest limitation. We can not even see something that we have no concept over.

To look from a different angle means to give up what we already know. This letting go is probably more difficult than learning. If you don’t believe it, try to forget what you just read in this blog. The very effort of trying to forget reinforce your knowledge of the existence of this blog. Or, maybe, try to forget your own name.

So, to help us letting go and discover something new, we might need to learn from monkey. We will have to “just playing around”, making all sorts of “mistakes”, and see what happens. This is a scary process since you have no idea what is going to come out.

Of cause, monkey have no idea what their pictures “mean”. We, on the other hand, monkey around, and “pick” those images that interest us. So are we still bounded by our language and knowledge?

That is probably why so many great artists had to be recognized long after they are dead. They happened to monkeyed into something that way beyond the understanding of the time.

Related album on Facebook

(Dancer: Olivia Eng, from Paco Gomes & Dancers)

Although you can put a infrared filter in front of the lens, this usually results in super long exposure, which is a problem in dance photography. A modified digital SLR serves much better. By putting a infrared filter inside the camera, right before the sensor, you can see what you are shooting, adjust by taking a test shot, and shooting at fast shutter speed.

(Dancers: Nina Fischer, Olivia Eng, from Paco Gomes & Dancers)

For infrared photo, you pretty much want to shoot in RAW format only. Once you bring the image to Photoshop, you will want to do a channel swapping to get rid off the red cast, and make the color close to normal. There is something mysterious about making a photo almost real, but not quite real.

(Dancer: Mari Takahashi)

Infrared turns the sky into deep dark, water into black hole, grass into dreamy white. It creates a perfect stage with dramatic light for dancers.

(Dancer: Mari Takahashi)

Infrared and dance photography seems to work very well together. Both distort or exaggerate the reality. Together they really enhance the surreal feeling. It’s like inside a dream.

More often these days, dances are performed in a environmental setting rather than on a stage inside a theatre. We have so used to quietly listening to a concert or watching a ballet inside a magnificently built theatre, and never realize that this is rather a new setting for enjoying music and dance. Traditionally (hundreds or thousands of years ago), there was no boundary between performer and spectators. Everybody is a participant. And professional dancers and musicians didn’t really existed at the time.

As human society evolves over the past few thousands of years, skills and jobs are becoming more and more specialized, so does music and dance. Slowly dance (or at least part of it) became a profession, and spectators became more and more passive. In fact, jumping up and down to express your joy while watching a dance performance is considered unacceptable behavior.

So dancing in a environmental setting is kind of going back to it’s tradition, except there is still a clear boundary between performers and spectators. Nevertheless, it pulls the audiences so close to dancers, that they receive a heightened experience that not likely to be possible in a theatre. Unlike in a theatre though, there is not a acceptable code of behavior for audience on the street.

Sometime breaking the boundary is very much the same as going back to the tradition.

(Above photos are from Kunst-Stoff dancing on Market St in San Francisco, August 2010. Dancers in the photos are Daiane, Chin-Chin, Daniel)

What made Dance Photography difficult? Well, like sports photography, dancers are usually moving very fast, unlike most sports photography,  dancers changes direction frequently and unexpectedly, and yes, the light is usually very dim, and change very fast.

Difficulties in dance photography includes: hard to focus, long shutter-lag (due to focus time), too many things to think about, auto exposure easily fooled by the background, lighting changes too fast, not enough light to stop the movement, etc.

The more frequent compliant is that the photos are usually come out fuzzy. My solution to that is pre-focus. My equipment of choice is Canon 5D with 50mm f1.4. And I shift focus from shutter to AE lock button using CF. This allow me to anticipate the location of action, pre-focus and fire away without shutter-lag.