Endahl — Ballet Zaida

I constantly look through the #BalletZaidaIgers tag on Instagram, and through the photos people send in through the Email, BalletZaida@Gmail.com and I’m loving what I see. The talent level of the dancers and the photographers is beyond amazing, and I think the photos are really inspiring. (I’ll be doing a blog post soon showcasing some of my favorite submissions.)

Even though the photos have been amazing, I believe there’s always room for improvement. So today I want to talk about 4 tips to make great ballet photos.

Tip Number 1: Body Blindness

When you take a ballet photo, don’t just look at the position of the body, look at the photo as a whole. Look at the environment the body is in, and how the line/position/expression of the body effects the environment around it.

Tip Number 2: Over-Editing

There’s a term photographers use called “over-editing.” It’s when a photo is so edited it becomes distracting, and it actually takes away from what’s going on in the photo. So just because you can apply a lot of different editing techniques doesn’t mean you should. What I personally do to avoid this is after I’ve spent some time editing a photo, if I feel funny about the editing I’ll leave the photo alone for 20 minutes, and then I’ll look at it again. Seeing the photo after having not seen it in a while generates a fresh reaction in my mind, and that usually gives me a good indication about how I feel about the editing that has been applied.

Tip Number 3: Take Photos

Just because you don’t have a 2,000 dollar camera doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take photos. Cell phone cameras are so nice nowadays you can take some great shots with them. It’s not about how many megapixels a photo has, it’s about what’s happening in the photo.

Tip Number 4: Explore

Don’t be afraid to try new things. Just because you haven’t seen any photos like the one you want to create, doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea. It just means it’s a new one. What photographers generally do is try to create photos that they’ve seen by other photographers in magazines or online, which I think is a little boring. Because even if you fully achieve that goal and create the photo you’ve seen, then you’ve just created a nice copy of a photo. So keep trying new ideas and I’m sure they’ll be amazing.

I hope these tips helped. I love looking at other people’s dance photography, brainstorming, and sharing ideas. If you have any dance photography tips and want to share them, feel free to post them in the comments section.

I look forward to seeing more of all your great photos!

-Oliver Endahl

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