Last week I did a dance photography sessions with the Fuji X-pro1 and X100. I Asked two dancers to model for the shoot, One is a classical ballerina and the other a break- and zouk dancer.

In studio

I started in the studio with just one light. I recently bough a Elinchrom Rotalux 150cm Deep Indirect Octa soft box on a white background. But it was to light for my taste so I changed to a light grey background just for some more moody feel.

For light I started with the Elinchrom RX one, But this was to weak to over power the ambient light in the studio in the 150 Deep octal, It is a big softbox!!! So i changed it to the Quadra. Because the ISO starts at 200 with the Fuji's and they have APS-C sensors, I didn't wanted to much light, for a smaller depth off field (f5.6 to f10/f11).

After some solo portraits and dance photo's it was time to put them together

I am starting to love my Fuji's more and more, The only things I really dislike is the waiting until all the photos are written to the card before you can watch them back. Because I was working with dancers this was getting anoying. They want to look them back fast so they can check if the position is right. Especially the feet. If you never have worked with dancers then it is good to know that, the light and emotion can be perfect an you go, "WHOOOO GREAT PHOTO JEEEEJJJ!!!!", but the feeds or hands are a few degree of..... It is not a good photo. Because people who know dance see it and you will get your butt kicked!

Also I would love to have the option to shoot ISO100 Raw. Just to be able to work with smaller aperture to get a smaller depth of field.

Going Outside

For the outside shots the Fuji X100 is still a killer. Because of the Leaf Shutter you can get a really fast X-sync to get a darker sky. I switched to the Elinchrom Maxilite because it has a higher output, so I didn't had to stress the battery off my power pack so much. I was working with the Elinchrom Ranger Quadra RX with an A-head on the B-port. This has 33% of the A port. So with the Elinchrom Maxispot I had enough light and stopping power to freeze the action! Also when I switched to the X-pro1.

Back to the Studio

After the rooftop shoot I wanted one other shot I saw in a Joe McNally Kebly training video. I just used a Single Quadra head in the B-port on full power in a Small Elinchrom Rotalux strip soft box. This was on a C-Stand at max hight, The dancer was slightly behind the head to feather the lighting.

Into The Dark Lightroom

Into lightroom I do just a little bit of FerryDusting on the imaging. I am not a big photoshopper. I want it to by stylized but still had to be real. So I did just a shapening, a bid of Pumping up the shadow, Drop the blackpoint. Opening in shadows, somehow adds some blue's in black, so especially with the studio shots I pulled down the blue saturation completely. Also some vignetting to finish it.

The Fuji's

Some say the Fuji's are not fast enough for shooting sports or action. But I think these pictures proof different! Getting your techniques down is the clue to good photo's, camera's are tools like a hammer is for a carpenter. And Photoshop and Lightroom is just the cream to finish of the dessert. Getting it good in camera with the light is the most important thing.