Original subtitles

Okay, one of my favourite parts of the

wedding day and one of my favourite parts

to document.

Let me show you why.

Okay, so before I start I have a

small confession to make.

I used to be rubbish at capturing it,

like so so bad.

I had absolutely no idea what I was

doing for the best part of two, maybe

three seasons.

It was a shoot and hope approach.

I just never truly understood the mechanics of

shooting the dance floor.

I was overwhelmed with kit, options and settings

and it showed in my ratio of successful

shots.

At a conservative guess, if I spent three

hours on the dance floor, the amount of

usable images I'd have after culling would be

around 10-15% of the shots I'd

taken.

That's a lot of wasted shutter presses.

Now, after making some simple changes and decisions

that I'll go into during this section, I

can return with an 80% conversion.

Which is why I can regularly deliver 300

-400 images to a couple from the dance

floor section alone.

We're going to cover the three setups I've

used over the past five to six years.

We'll discuss kit, which lenses I use, triggers

and receivers, flash guns and all of the

accessories you need to arm yourself with.

But before we get into all of that,

I want to show you this image.

This is where it starts for me.

Right here.

This.

In a nutshell, this is how I want

my images to look and feel when I

shoot the dance floor.

I don't want the viewer to see or

think I've introduced light into this scene.

And again, we'll cover the mechanics of how

this was lit soon, but when you introduce

high-powered light onto a dance floor, for

me, it kills the atmosphere of the shot.

I want, just like all of my images

from other parts of the day, for the

end user or viewer to feel like they're

there in the scene.

Now, in comparison, this is an image I've

just pulled from the web.

I'd say this is a common shot setup,

but just to be clear, I have nothing

against this shot.

I don't know who the photographer is, but

it's not me.

The aesthetic of using off-camera flash, gels,

modifiers, grids, it's just not my cup of

tea.

And it's not for the client I'm trying

to appeal to either.

Again, I'm mentioning this because it's about recognising

style and setting boundaries and guidelines for your

work.

If you love this kind of image, absolutely

do it and go for it.

Make it the best shot you can possibly

make.

But we won't be covering this type of

setup here, because it's not something that I

use within my work.

Before we do start on dancefloor setup, I

just want to cover a few minutes on

low-light shooting, because this is where the

foundation of shooting the dancefloor actually starts.

And I want to show you two portraits

in particular.

The first one is Georgia and Lee.

Now, this is actually from way back, sometime

around 2014-15.

I was on the Canon 5D Mark III's

for this shot, and any time it got

posted on Facebook, way back in the day,

I'd be bombarded with the following question.

How have you lit Georgia and Lee?

And it became hard to convince people that

this was just ambient light.

And remember, ISO performance wasn't as impressive as

it is on today's gear, but this was

shot at 3200 ISO, and it's only lit

with those festoon lights you can see in

the shot.

But if you push the ISO to 3200,

shoot wide open at 1.4, and slow

your shutter to 1 60th of a second,

you can achieve good exposure in low light

such as this.

The key here isn't just the ISO f

-stop though.

Shooting at 1 60th can result in some

motion blur and camera shake, so getting Georgia

and Lee to be still, and burst shooting

a high continuous sequence, while you lock your

arms in tight, were vital to achieving that

shot.

Fast forward to 2018, and an even more

extreme example of low light.

Emma and Jade.

This time we're on the 5D Mark IV's,

but again, completely ambient light.

But let's look at the settings.

12,800 ISO.

The newer breed of body is much more

capable of handling higher ISO's without being noisy

and unusable.

And again, shot wide open at f 1

.4, and the shutter at 1 50th of

a second.

Another lesson from this frame, and a super

simple technique.

Before I asked Emma and Jade to come

out and stand under the lights, I'd have

stood in their position first, and just taken

a shot of my hand.

If there's enough light so I can expose

for the skin, then we have a shot,

and I'll go get my subjects.

I'd never bring a couple out and ask

them to stand there whilst I test it

out.

Get it set up and tested, then bring

your couple out.

Now, onto another low light option.

Alternative light sources.

Again, I don't use off-camera flash for

any of my portraits, but I will use

available light sources.

Festoon lights, street lights, and in this example,

car park lights.

This is a frame from a wedding, one

of the only weddings I've ever shot where

it rained non-stop for 12 hours.

But as I was leaving, it stopped, and

in the car park was this huge security

light at the back.

So exposing for that light, and positioning my

couple to block it, just allowed me to

create something for them that was unique to

their day.

Okay, before we move on to the technical

aspects of setting up in the next episode,

let me just explain exactly why I love

the Dancefloor so much.

First and foremost, it's a great USP, and

it makes me stand out from 95%

of the market.

And because of that reason, when you're still

there two hours after the first dance, people

notice you.

You're still here.

I've given them a positive reason to talk

about me.

That said, if you're doing a triple header,

or 60 weddings a year, it might not

be physically possible to offer that.

And I've also worked with some photographers who

simply don't feel comfortable staying that late on

their own.

So please don't start staying just because I

do.

It has to be a personal decision you

make for your business.

There's no right or wrong here.

It's also important to stress, I charge for

it.

It's worked into my day rate.

But it's there because I always found it

difficult to leave the Dancefloor for the fear

of missing great moments.

The unpredictable stuff.

The end of the night hugs that no

one wants to break free from.

The looks and reactions.

Obviously dad drinking.

The atmosphere and vibe.

And yeah, the absolute absurd.

Right, see you in the next episode where

we get into the nitty gritty.