Why do we need these 5 tips for wedding dance shots? More often than not wedding dance shots turn out flat, mainly because the emotion that was felt in the dance floor seems to be absent in the photograph. But who can deny the romance of the first dance? Or the energy of the dance floor when the DJ cranks up the tempo. As photographers, we have to capture that essence – a challenging task that can be accomplished with these 5 tips for wedding dance shots.
Plan with the couple
This is where the couple needs to be aware of the photographer. I know it seems bit too much to ask for – especially for the first dance, when newly weds are lost in each others arms. So a bit of advance planning and coaching might help. The photographer would be hanging out at the side of the floor most of the time often going round the floor to follow the movements of the couple, or shooting from a vantage point if one is available. The couple should know about these spots and remember to look directly at the camera a sometimes, not together, but one at a time. For example, the bride can look over the shoulder of the groom, with her face partly hidden but her eyes will speak to the camera.
Follow the music
The pace of the dance and the accompanying music is something the photographer has to take into account. If it is slow and romantic, some intimate close shots of the couple will be easy to take. For fast paced music, the framing should be wider to give enough space so the dance moves appear expressive.
Vary the viewpoint
Clever use of viewpoint creates great result. Take advantage of a top angle, if available. Or simple raise the camera above your head, angle downwards and shoot. With practice, you will start getting good shots .Shoot from a lower angle to isolate the couple from a busy background. Incorporate the guests in the background to create an effective composition, but use differential exposure with the help of flash so the couple can stand out.
Use flash creatively
Flash, if used, should be a fill-in and not dominate the ambient light, otherwise the mood will be completely lost. In some of the shots here, you can how dark the dance floor was. So a camera that has good noise characteristics at high ISO is good for these situations. I usually shoot the flash at a fraction of the full power and do not directly point the flash. I use a diffuser to soften the light and point it in the opposite direction towards a reflecting surface when available.
Give the flash to an assistant, if available and remotely trigger it. Just having the flash off-camera can create a lot of interesting and creative lighting opportunities. To take this extreme, you might have the means or the opportunity to position multiple strobes at suitable vantage points around the dance floor and use a specific channel to trigger all at once to paint the whole dance floor with light.
Rear curtain sync is a nice trick to give a sense of motion. The shot must be taken with a low enough shutter speed, so that bulk of the exposure time is with ambient light thereby blurring motion, and the flash firing to freeze the motion toward the end (hence the term “rear”) of the exposure. If correctly done, the effect is really impressive. I always use this technique for dances.
Be alert to use other light sources
Sometimes you may get lucky with the video light, where you can turn off the flash and see what effect you can get. Or even more lucky with the monitor pre-flash from another camera. This actually happened to me. The other flash created a strong back-light and my flash created the fill-in. This type of shot is hardly possible to plan for and execute.
