From concept to print: Clive Booth's fiery ballet shoot with the Canon EOS R

Creating beautiful bokeh

The resulting images were intended for a range of publicity uses, from the ballet company's social media pages and website to printed posters. With the deliverables in mind, Clive shot the campaign with the full-frame mirrorless Canon EOS R paired with the Canon RF 50mm f/1.2L USM, the RF 24-105MM F/4L IS USM and the RF 35mm f/1.8 IS Macro STM lenses. The final images were then printed on the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-4000 large-format printer.

Clive's signature style is to use natural or continuous light and to shoot with lenses at a wide aperture for a narrow plane of focus. "I wanted to create really nice bokeh either side of the focal point," he says. "So I was working predominantly at around f/2.8 and ISO400.

"We did all the setting up in the morning and I knew we only had four hours to nail the picture," Clive continues. "In a shoot like this, particularly an experimental one, you reach a point where everything starts to click, then after that it just rolls."

Portraits with the Canon EOS R

"I absolutely love the camera," Clive says of the Canon EOS R. "The ergonomics and the way it feels in my hand.

"The lenses are extraordinary. I knew the Canon RF 50mm f/1.2L USM lens was going to be good, but when you start seeing the results, you think 'Wow!' The level of control you've got on the camera is outrageous – I can configure it any way I like. Also, although sometimes the light levels were very low, I could see everything clearly with the EVF.

"The thing I've loved most is that when you shoot a frame, you instantly see it through the viewfinder for a split second. It totally changes things because you're seeing the file without taking the camera from your eye. I knew I had nailed a particular shot without having to break the flow so I could work quicker.

"The camera did an amazing job and the autofocusing worked brilliantly. Given the challenges of what we were trying to do, we'd have been very hard pushed to do this shoot on any other camera system."

Although Clive has been using Canon kit for more than a decade, he says the launch of the EOS R is a very special one. "I've been involved with many Canon firsts, but this, I have to say, does feel different. It sounds a bit dramatic, but it's almost like a reinvention of the camera. A product like this reinvigorates you – it gets you excited about photography in a new way."

Making fine art prints

An advocate of committing images to paper, Clive culminated the shoot with large-format prints. The Fire & Fury images were processed as 16-bit TIFFs through Canon's Digital Photo Professional (DPP) software. With "minimal retouching", they were output as prints up to 112cm (44 inches) wide using the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-4000 printer.

"I've worked with imagePROGRAF printers for many years and they're robust and reliable," Clive continues. "You've always got the difference between reflected light and projected light, but what I get in the print is very close to what I see on screen.

"The cool thing is that once I've created a file, I can send that file to another imagePROGRAF printer, with the same calibration and settings, anywhere in the world, and know that their print will look the same as ones made in my office. The prints that the PRO-4000 produced from the Birmingham Royal Ballet shoot were just fantastic."

Clive firmly believes that a print is the best way for photographers to display their work. "It's still the only way to show somebody your version of a picture, because every monitor is different," he says.

"Print is also arguably still the best way to archive your work. I think there's a resurgence of interest in ink on paper, just like there is in music on vinyl. Increasingly, there's a perceived value in ink on paper, and the PRO-4000 will give you the ultimate ink on paper. For me, having my own colour-managed workflow and making my own prints is the most relaxing and rewarding thing that I do."

Since Clive worked with the EOS R on this shoot, firmware updates have added additional features that could benefit photographers capturing dancers in action. These include eye-detection AF that supports Servo AF, to help ensure that subjects’ eyes are clearly in focus even when they’re moving; the ability to use a small AF frame size that supports Servo AF; and the ability to use continuous shooting mode even when you've chosen to use a silent shutter.