Photography, in general, is a tough area to get into. Part of the problem with trying to become a photographer is that, nowadays, everyone is one.

All phones come equipped with cameras which increasingly look like professional level, and all it takes is someone to take a few nice-looking photos for them to start considering themselves a photographer. Interestingly, this problem is somewhat lessened by focusing specifically on ballet/dance photography, or other more niche areas.

The layman wouldn’t be able to show up to a studio and take shots of dancing that anyone would recognize as professional, whereas they might be able to when photographing a flower, for example. The downside to this is that, if you are interested in ballet photography, there’s a lot to learn. So, let’s get started with a few tips for beginners.

Get Your Equipment Right

At the high-end of photography, you can watch tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars gurgle away on gear. But, for now, that’s wholly unnecessary and, for a very affordable price, you will be able to get some stunning shots to make you and/or your clients very happy. The areas to focus on in terms of picking your camera are the areas that most strongly correlate with the act of dance itself. This means, for starters, you’ll want a DSLR. Photographing dance on a manual film camera is a whole other story.

The DSLR you’ll want to get will have excellent abilities with low light, meaning that it can shoot clear images at high ISO settings. Couple that with what is called a fast lens, meaning an f-stop of 2.8 or lower, and some good zooming abilities and you should have an excellent device for capturing live shows.

Make sure that your lens has capable autofocus, since manually focusing dance photos can be a huge pain, nearly impossible in some situations. And, finally, focus on your shutter speeds. You need high shutter speeds to be able to capture dance since it’s all movement. You want it as low as you can get away with, but 1/250 is a good starting point, so it’s going to be high no matter what.

Know The Show

This is one which is under-appreciated by a lot of photographers. Photographing dancing when you’re unfamiliar with the show and the movements of the dancers could still lead to some good photos, but it also could cause you to miss out on a critical moment that you’ll kick yourself for after the fact. If you watch the rehearsal and even photograph it a bit, you’ll have reference points, and it’ll ensure that you don’t swap your lenses during a crucial bit of dance. Your clients will undoubtedly thank you.

Make sure that you spend some time with the dancers, talk to them because they often know what dance moves look the best in terms of drama on the scene or the movement of the costumes.

They might not know this, but they can tell you about some important moments in the play, which can help you focus more during that time. It also helps if you watch some of the rehearsals and also, some of the videos of the play that they did in the past. That way, you can also incorporate the understanding of the costume and scenery.

Capturing Movement

One of the most vital elements of ballet photography, which is distinct to it as a sub-genre of ballet as a whole, is the need to capture movement. Capturing movement isn’t so much a technical issue, though of course equipment and technical prowess come into it, but more of a spiritual, artistic issue.

Ballet and photography are antithetical to one another, ballet is all about movement and physical expression, photography is all about capturing a single moment. And yet a good ballet photographer will, in capturing a single moment, evoke a thousand. Capturing the graceful movement of ballet could involve several different techniques.

Photography tricks like double exposure, or even stabilizing your camera and dropping the shutter speed to capture the blur of movement, are effective ways to join in on the artistry of ballet. But, given how specific ballet is as an art form, you will want to check before using these methods.

The other most popular technique is about taking photos which imply movement, capturing poses which, if held in real life, would require there to have been or for there to be movement following.

Conclusion

Hopefully, with a few of these tips, you will find yourself with a good start in ballet photography. Ballet is a controlled art form much like photography, so, if you are well-prepared and kitted out, you should be able to find clever ways to join into the artistry with your photography.