I have been shooting a dance studio for about 6 years now and they have asked me if I can do white on white with the reflective floor, The problem is that I will have some of the groups at over 25 dancers, I normally set-up a 20 by 40 Backdrop for this, Can anyone guide me to something portable that I can use?
Had a look at your dance portfolio. Nice work. While not the exact advice you are looking for here is some food for though for a strategy that will not require a huge background.
The more you raise the point-of-view of the camera the more the reflective floor will surround the dancers on it, so that's a strategy you might consider. That would allow you to drape the background visible behind with some 10' wide muslin hung sideways.
Doing the mirror off the floor gimmick but then chopping off the heads in reflection never made much sense to me, but you'll see that happen all the time when shots are taken at ground level. So another advantage of the higher POV looking down, with the faces of the dancers looking up at the camera, you'll be able to capture their entire reflection in the foreground (the higher you get the shorter the reflection will be. SInce the upwards angle of the faces match the downward tilt of the camera they wind up having the same perspective as in an eye-level view. There will be some foreshortening of the torso, but that tends to narrow and flatter the hips, to the extent girls that age have any
Lighting is simpler too. Since the faces are looking up you can just bounce it off the ceiling down on the faces, the ceiling will diffuse it from the point on the ceiling making the fall-off omni-directional, which in term will make it easier to keep the floor / background white. Add to the ceiling bounce a rear kicker feathered down towards the floor.
The only Catch-22 would be whether or not the ceiling in the space is high enough.
how bout tile board? (the usual 3 answers are sheets of acrylic, sheets of plexi, and tileboard) It's cheap, relatively flexible, and readily available.
Here's a link to Zack Arias' page where he discusses his use of tile board
cathpah wrote:
how bout tile board? (the usual 3 answers are sheets of acrylic, sheets of plexi, and tileboard) It's cheap, relatively flexible, and readily available.
Here's a link to Zack Arias' page where he discusses his use of tile board
That link to Zach's blog is 100% helpful to me as I am just about to invest in some of this stuf and this will guide me better in getting things just perfect.
I used the tile board technique, I also did the bifold doors this is a must. I used gaffers tape to keep the light from coming thru the crack is the doors. Because the setup was so large I had a 5 light setup. 2 to light the backdrop, 2 to light the subject and one on the floor.
I had 4x8 sheets of the flexible tile board. The backdrop was 24 wide, and I did the 4 wide across the back, taped to the floor and then over lapped the next row and did 3 wide and then 3 again.
I think the main reason to use the tileboard is the reflection it provides. This reflections is almost like a more aesthetically pleasing shadow, and helps prevent the subject from looking like they are levitating.
