How to Shoot a Dance Session

Alexander Slanger stays on his toes during a shoot with Princess using the Tamron SP 70-200mm F/2.8 and his trusty SP 17-35mm.

Article by Jenn Gidman

Images by Alexander Slanger

Alexander recently got his chance in a photo session with Princess Mecca Romero, a classically trained New York City dancer. To help him stay on pointe, he used his Tamron SP 70-200mm F/2.8 lens, supplemented by the Tamron 17-35mm lens he has relied on for years. "The 2.8 aperture on the 70-200 just crushed the background," he says. "It isolated my subject and gave that shallow depth-of-field I wanted for this shoot."

Alexander and Princess started their session in the dance studio, where they both got a chance to warm up. "We'd been corresponding for months via email, but this was the first time we had actually met," he says. "It's a little awkward in the beginning, so the studio shoot was more unstaged, with her mostly working at the barre and doing her exercises."

Of course, with mirrors in every direction, it was difficult for Alexander to hide as he clicked away. "There were 360 degrees of mirrors, with only one adjustable mirror that I could pivot," he says. "I was always either shooting at an angle or lying on my back as I shot her."

Not that shooting at an angle was a bad thing: Doing this allowed Alexander to work with Princess' natural lines. "With a pro like Princess, you leave it to her to create the image," he says. "Just by tilting the camera a little bit, I could create a more interesting visual. For one shot I did of her, she was leaning back, and I tilted my camera just slightly (you can see the line of the barre isn't completely straight) to accentuate her lines and to give the picture more energy. I also love the rim light on her legs - it really makes them pop."

By the time they headed over to a nearby gymnasium, Alexander and Princess had become more comfortable with each other. "That's where I really stretched my legs, and she stretched hers," he says. Because the people who let him use the gym didn't want it to be easily identifiable, Alexander had to concentrate solely on Princess, not on the backgrounds. "You don't really need a background for a dancer, though, unless she's jumping in front of some amazing fountain in Paris," he laughs.

To isolate Princess, Alexander needed to make his background go black. "I used a strobe with a reflector at camera left and did a test exposure before we started," he says. "I had to bring the ambient light down, so I shot at F/13 at a maximum sync speed of 1/160th. I used a strobe over her left shoulder as a rimlight in a few of the images. I also stuck another strobe behind her for some of the photos of her in her red dress - this created a halo effect that wrapped around her edges, which really made her stand out from the background."

Princess' former teacher came to watch and assist, which helped Alexander nail her every move. "I prefocused on a mark on the gym floor I had set up and then had Princess perform the apex of her moves over that spot," he says. "Her teacher would call out the moves just like in dance class to help her hit the apex at the right moment. It would have been very difficult for me to autofocus in that dark ambient light. Because the recycling time of the strobes wouldn't allow for multiple exposures, I got one exposure per leap."

Reflections are an integral part of Alexander's dance images. "She has a great physique, including super-strong legs, and I had to figure out how to meld that physique with the background," he says. "The reflections I photograph help me do that by adding more dynamic to the photo, instead of it just being a staid shot of a dancer looking into a mirror."

Alexander also started pushing the envelope of the classical ballet shot as they became more at ease with each other. "In the beginning, when we were first getting to know each other, Princess was very formal and polite," he explains. "However, within about half an hour, she got goofy and her personality really shone through. I decided to take a few shots of her with some attitude, which I didn't even realize she had initially."

Some experimental shots with the 17-35 and a light cable served Alexander well, too. "I shot this series in a gymnasium closet where all of the balls and sports gear were kept," he says. "I took a long exposure for each shot, strobing her from camera left, while her friend spun the light cable relatively quickly behind her. Those images came out really cool!"

To see more of Alexander Slanger's work, go to www.slangerphotography.com.