AboutDavid Barry Expertise I have a lot of experience in most traditional forms of photography, so I`m quite knowledgeable about things like camera types and formats, techniques, exposure, film types, colour, filters, lighting, standard colour and black and white developing and printing.
I do not make recommendations about brands or models, and I am not a camera technician so I may not be able to tell you what is wrong with your equipment if it`s not working .
I also know a little about digital photography and imaging with scanners and digital cameras, so ask me and I will answer if I can.
Experience Experience in the area
I have been seriously involved in photography for over 25 years, including about 4 years as a professional, as well as 2 years providing administrative service to government photographers, requiring interpreting photographers' requirements and trade technicalities for those unfamiliar with such.
I have successfully trained several beginners in photography, helping them to become competent in basic techniques.
Organizations belong to:
None at present, but have been in about 4 camera clubs, having won or had placings in 2 club competitions.
Publications:
A lot of my photos have been in educational / training manuals, books and some photography magazines, as well as 2-3 dozen images been on the Web so far.
Education/Credentials:
Completed 4-year diploma in professional photography technique at Sydney's Technical College
Awards and Honors:
3 placings and / or merits in camera club competitions.
Expert: David Barry Date: 12/20/2006 Subject: Photgraphing Swing Dancers.
Question I'm interested in taking photos of social dancers, Swing, Salsa, Tango, etc. Most of these venues occur indoors and in dimly lit spaces. Is this a lost cause or is there a way to do this without flashing everyone blind or adding additional light? I was thinking about using IR photography or some kind of night vision, but I don't want to spend the money on something that won't work.
Answer No I don't think it's a totally lost cause, but to stand a chance of getting reasonably sharp images with sufficient detail to recognise the dancers, it's likely you will need some extra light, such as a flash.
A flash doesn't have to blind the subject if you can figure a way of not aiming the flash directly at the dancers, but maybe reflected off a wall/ceiling (if the flash can be set up to 'bounce' the light of a reflective surface). The flash light would then be less intrusive, and even more 'natural' in its effect.
Alternatively, if you're prepared to sacrifice some sharpness and detail in the dancers AND your camera has the ability to operate at RELATIVELY long, slow shutter speeds, and to be set at high ISO/ASA settings, you may have some success.
Also a means of providing some steady support for the camera (e.g. tripod or monopod) would be useful.
Since I don't know what capability and range of settings your camera has, and exactly how dim the venues will be, I'm not sure just what exposure settings to recommend. Perhaps your camera's light meter can give you some guidance in that regard, and you can also experiment with variations on the camera meter's recommended settings.
I'm not up to speed with night vision stuff, so I can't really give any advice there, but IR could work (and may even deliver some interestingly unusual results). However, even with IR, I'm not sure dim interiors would enable you to get sufficiently sharp shots. Again, experimenting with exxposure settings would be necessary as IR films can be a bit unpredictable. And numerous digital cameras don't really cater for IR imaging due to the specifics of the digital sensor's sensitivity.
