The Ohio State University Dance Department: Lighting Diagram to shoot a group of people with flashes

I have been shooting dancers for several years now. It started off as a personal project and has since evolved into working directly with the OSU dance department.

This shoot is for their fall 2012 dance. It is happening around Thanksgiving, so they wanted the shoot to have an element of abundance. We didn’t have a concrete vision going in to the shoot, but as the dancers began their routines, this Herb Ritts photo came to mind. And I think this pose was a good representation of the theme of abundance.

Credits: Image by Herb Ritts

For lighting I had the two background lights on the floor. This allowed the white background to transition from white to grey. The main light was bare bulb and raised to around 12 feet, with a wide zoom. This is necessary when shooting a moving dancer. I made sure that there was at least a four stop difference between the main and background lights.