CHICAGO: ADVANCED DANCE PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP

Join John Gress for a full-day workshop focused entirely on photographing dancers in motion. Working with two professional dancers, you’ll learn how to create dynamic images that capture strength, elegance, shape, and movement with intention and precision.

Throughout the day, we’ll explore how to freeze motion using strobe lighting, how to build lighting setups for larger scenes involving multiple subjects, and how subtle changes in timing, light placement, and posing can dramatically change the feel of an image.

We’ll work through a variety of looks including high-key and low-key lighting setups, dramatic directional lighting, silhouette techniques, color lighting, and layered multi-light arrangements designed to emphasize motion and form. You’ll also learn how to manage exposure and timing when photographing jumps, turns, lifts, and fast movement.

This workshop is designed to help photographers become more confident directing subjects, shaping light for movement, and building visually striking images that feel intentional rather than accidental.

Topics Covered:

• Freezing motion with flash
• Timing and photographing movement
• High-key versus low-key approaches
• Using light to emphasize shape and form
• Multi-light setups for larger scenes
• Color and mood in dance imagery
• Directing and posing dancers naturally
• Creating depth and separation in studio environments
• Building dynamic compositions with movement

Whether you are new to studio lighting or looking to push your portrait work into something more dynamic and cinematic, this workshop will give you practical techniques you can immediately apply to your own shoots.

For more information about my workshops please click here.

This workshop is limited to only 15 participants.

The venue is wheelchair accessible.