BALLET PHOTOSHOOT IN ZÜRICH

Behind the Scenes of a Ballerina Photoshoot

I have always been fascinated by the dancers. How they are concious of their bodies, how they move almost like a feather in the wind yet how difficult actually every move they do.
Because of this reason probably dancers, ballerinas are one of the most wonderful subjects to photograph.

Today I will talk a bit about the behind the scenes of a late ballet photoshoot that I did recently in my photo studio in Zürich.

Brainstorming before the Ballet Photoshoot

Long before the actual dance photoshoot we met in my photo studio in Zürich.
Because I have prepared my ideas before the meeting, I have presented her with my concept for our Dance photoshoot. We discussed how she would like to be expressed as a ballerina in her photos and how much of the ideas we would like to do in our Ballet photoshoot.
After an hour consultation we were happy with our results and then there was the preparation part for her and for me.

Concept of the Ballet Photoshoot

We decided the photos to be something painterly and dreamy. A bit nostalgic a bit like coming from a fairy tale. Those were the points hoe I decided to set my light up and how I decided on the poses. It had to be something airy – which means static poses were not on the list. She wanted to flow in the photos like a fairy and that was the reason I decided to shoot her as she was moving, not when she was posing.

Preparation for the Ballet Photoshoot in Zürich

The whole preparation for the ballet photoshoot was based on the movement. This was not a typical portrait photoshoot. Dance means movement, flow, energy and dance photos should have expressed those concepts.
Each pose or each fabric was chosen based on the concept movement. Dance photography, in my opinion, much more expressive with movement. This can be the subject itself or the dress, fabric or whatever it may be as long as it is moving.

Styling for the Ballet Photoshoot

One of the ways that also contributes to the movement is the dress.
A ballerina tutu could not show this energy and flow. So I decided to find a flowing tulle dress. It was the perfect solution because the dress was also moving with her and showing the flowing energy of an elegant ballerina’s movements.

We also wanted her hair to flow together with the movement. This was only possible with loose hair rather than typical ballerina bun.

Lighting for the Ballerina Photoshoot

One of the topics of the consultation before our dance photoshoot was how to light her. Rather than throwing light all around with a big light source, we wanted more dramatic and low key lighting. However there was no accent light because of the movement in almost every shot.

Photoshoot with a ballerina

A ballet photoshoot means more team work rather than photographer controlling everything. After each photo we analyzed and decided which movement would be a better fit, what should be done to maximize the impact of the pose and so on. This resulted in a much more fun and enjoyable time during the photoshoot and I definitely will go on photographing dancers!