Long Exposure Dance Photography

It may seem paradoxical at first that still images can be the perfect medium to show motion. But once you explore long shutter speeds, this becomes obvious.

I contacted Pirita, with whom I had worked before, to see if she was interested in doing a long exposure dance photography shoot. To my delight, she agreed. The shoot took place at Dance Base studio 3, because we needed a black background.

The photographs were lit with flash at the beginning of the exposure and some continuous LED lights during the rest of the six to eight second exposure. I had also brought some bits of fabric to add colour to the images. It’s relatively easy to set up, but it takes quite a bit of experimentation to get it right. In the end, we both really liked the results.