Oct 5, 20193 min read

Immersive dance photoshoot

Behind the scenes feat. Kristina Bentz

To sum this up, I am trying my best to find a simple and effective way to bring you with me to some of my regular photoshoot sessions.

I've used Gopros in the past to film my sessions, and now I am using a 360° camera called the ONEX.

I love it for a lot of reasons and most of them were mentioned here:

Do yourself a favor, prepare your photoshoot!

Easy to use, just fix it on your camera and press the record button. The only issue is when I use a lens that is over 50mm... the ultra-wide-angle lens makes my subject super tiny as if he or she was a hundred meters away. Zooming in doesn't fix the problem, the resolution of the ONEX is 5.7k total (front and back) so zooming in too much gives you an over pixelated image.

So I would need 2 cameras, my insta360 ONEX mounted on my camera and another one with a "télé" like lens on the side for some close-ups and a better view of my model overall.

The idea was to have a portable rather small easy setup because I don't want to carry around too much gear, and I don't want to overthink it, because my priority is my photoshoot!

I guess that my only solution for now, unfortunately, is having someone else filming for me on the side.

Let's wait and see, maybe I will find a better solution in the near future.

For now, this is all we have, and I am happy I still had my little camera with me for this fun improvised session with Kristi Bentz a wonderful and talented dancer from the Opera de Lyon.

I wanted to change the way I work during my short stay in Lyon. After the first shot, I thought I would give Kristi a little more room to breathe, to move, to experiment. I just left her in her flow and tried my best to keep my mouth shut during the process.

Usually, I give a lot of indications and constraints to my model. The reason for that is because I often make my framing and composition first and then I try to find a way to make something with my performer work within that space.

By letting the dancer move depending on the amount of freedom you give them you will be less precise with your composition. If you are a bit like me you will also reject a ton of pictures in the post because the body movement, shape, and form might work with the background or with the environment.

But the results you get are something different. More organic, it feels "real" and less staged, depending on how much you let your performer move. We didn't really get there on this session, because working this way for an entire shoot was new to me. I also believe that you cannot do this with anybody. Your performer must know how to improvise, under any circumstances, anywhere, and there has to be some kind of connection with the photographer too. Kristi was amazing, my only regret was to not have pushed this session further.

I hope there will be a "next time", I learned so much during this short session.

Fujifilm GFX50s GF 110mm F2 R WR 1/4000 f2.5 ISO100