Photographs in the Theatre

Last night was second dress for a production of Seven Guitars that I have been working on. Traditionally second dress is the night where the tech and design crew can take pictures during the run. I brought my new D50 and snapped off a couple hundred pics. I am familiar with using an SLR, but not in the theatre. I shot at ISO 1600 in a mix of modes and metering. When the night was over, I wasn't really satisfied with what I got.

Does anyone have any tips for shooting under these extreme conditions? I am a lighting design and tech major, and want to capture images for my lighting portfolio. At times, the stage is brightly lit, at other times very dim. At times, I want to capture a sense of the color saturation and at other times, I want to capture the modeling of the light.

I am shooting a D50 with a Nikkor 28-80 AF-G F3.3-5.6.

Any tips/tricks/past experiences would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

--Stage photography is one of tuffest fields do to changing light and restricted access.You are in unique position of insider so close distance can be advantage and inexpancive 50mm1.8 will work well.Forget about ISO1600 and shutt at ISO400 and use proper technique to shutt at low shutter speed.Slow moving actors can be sharp at 1/30 and 1/60 1/125 is fast for hand holding.This is a link to my doghter rechersal that I use 300mmf2.8 as a main lens and hand hold at 1/60 get some books about this specific field witch is very interesting http://mironv.smugmug.com/gallery/1635381



Mironv
http://mironv.smugmug.com/

...it all depends on the lighting and where people are in relation to it.

As the previous poster stated, you can get decent shots at low ISO if you time the action and the light is right. You have the benefit of knowing the show, so you should know when and where the action will be slow.

If the lighting is moody, you will have no choice but to bump up your ISO-so know where it is and how to change it quickly. The dynamic range in the theatre is obscene so don't worry too much about blown highlights-just be aware of where they occur. You probably do not want them on someone's face.

Your fastest lens is a 3.5 if I remember correctly. That is really pushing it. The slowest I use in the theatre is 2.8. I also spot meter. My fastest lens is a 50mm 1.2 but it is a bear to focus.

Do you have a tripod or monopod? It helps.

Depending on the show, you could use, tastefully use, a flash gelled with the predominant gel on your FOH.

Do a search on here for saturated reds or reds blown out. Does your camera have seperate RGB histograms? If so, watch the red channel.

The incandescent WB setting works well in theatre unless there are a lot of MSD lamp sources (color changers, spotlights). Spots like the Lycian have a much higher color temp, more like daylight.

Have several cards ready...be prepared to trash 85 per cent that night.

Shoot RAW.
--
Jeff Smith

Thanks for the great advice.

I have been looking at purchasing the 50mm f1.8 prime for a while now. I think this would be excellent for shooting in smaller, flexible theatres, but some of my work will be in large prosceniums so I will need a longer focal length. Regardless, the 50mm prime will be a great tool to have in my inventory.

I had not yet considered white balance. This particular production used all HPL lamps, and I shot in RAW so I believe I can fix the WB in PP. Our theatre just purchased a new system of Martin movers, which have a ridiculously high color temperature (though they also have great correction wheels).

You touched on dynamic range a bit-- This brings up another question from me. What differences can I expect when shooting against a cycolrama versus a black velour background. Is a black background better suited towards spot metering?

The more I ask these questions the more I realise I should invest in a good book on the subject.

Thanks again!

Just a beginner at this. I believe that white balance is the bigest problem. These were taken with a D70s ISO 1600 Lens 44MM from a box seat.







http://www.alldigital.fotopic.net

--
Art

I've done a lot of dance performances. I use ISO 800 and up and usually incandescent light balance and let the gels the stage lighting designer chose set the mood. You will need to use faster lenses. I use the 50mm f1.8, 85mm f1.8 and 24mm f2.8. Even then, if the subjects are moving rapidly you have to either accept motion blur and use it creatively, or wait for pauses to capture your shots. Shoot a lot and throw away a lot. The metering will be all out of whack with dark backgrounds on the stage, and even spot metering will tend to be unreliable. I generally shoot a few test shots, choose an exposure and then lock it in manually and let the variations in the stage lighting set the overall mood; i.e. if the lighting comes down, then the subject is intended to look dark and I accept that.



Here's a link to my performance portfolio

http://www.pbase.com/hsandler/performance

Jasong2626 said:

Last night was second dress for a production of Seven Guitars that
I have been working on. Traditionally second dress is the night
where the tech and design crew can take pictures during the run. I
brought my new D50 and snapped off a couple hundred pics. I am
familiar with using an SLR, but not in the theatre. I shot at ISO
1600 in a mix of modes and metering. When the night was over, I
wasn't really satisfied with what I got.

Does anyone have any tips for shooting under these extreme
conditions? I am a lighting design and tech major, and want to
capture images for my lighting portfolio. At times, the stage is
brightly lit, at other times very dim. At times, I want to capture
a sense of the color saturation and at other times, I want to
capture the modeling of the light.

I am shooting a D50 with a Nikkor 28-80 AF-G F3.3-5.6.

Any tips/tricks/past experiences would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

Here are a couple shots from that night which have gone through cropping, PP, and the such. These could have really popped if the noise from ISO 1600 wasn't so high.

Floyd--
I wish I had been on the other side of the arena for this shot.



King Hedly--



The play is August Wilson's 'Seven Guitars'

Comments welcome.

Something I read, sort of glanced over when reading the boards here in regards to white balance that has CHANGED my photography dramatically is....pre-set your white balance manually. It is incredible. No need (at least for me) for an expo disc, I have simply pre set the wb with a styrofoam cup and its been incredible. The white balance is nearly always perfect no matter what the lighting. Give it a try, its the biggest jump in my photographic education in years!
--
Debra
Nikon N90, D70 and the newest addition to the family, an UZI!

Debra,

Can you elaborate? You basically use any cup you get with coffee in it from a coffe-shop?

Cheers

Graham

See my thread at:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1034&message=20149897

After you get the 50 1.8. get the 85 1.8D. Great lens, new for around $400-450. Used around $250-300 for a good copy.

Good luck!

Michael
--
http://www.pbase.com/mmccreary
http://www.McCrearyRealty.com

'A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.' - Douglas Adams

Until recently, I shot several shows a year in the high school theatre program I directed. I found I did my best shots from fairly close to the stage, with ISO 800, sometimes 1600 if the lights were dim, WB incandescent, open as far as I could get it. I was shooting with my 18-200, once I made the change to D50. Before that I shot with a 28-105 on an N50. I was shooting rehearsals, so I used a flash. I have an old SB20 that still works fine, although it is not automatic any more. Frankly, it was mainly a case of just get as much light on the stage as I could manage because the stage lights always look brighter than they really are. Here are a few of my better results.









Now, I own a 50 f1.8, and I might get right up on the stage and shoot with it. Faster is always better. But you can get some good results even with a not so fast lens, if you know the script and when to be where. Good luck. I think this is an especially fun kind of photography to do.
--
All the best,
Kit
Please see my pictures at
http://www.parazz.com/albums/kithg

If you are shooting with the cyc in the background, my experience has been that CA will rear its ugly head if the lens has a problem with it. My 70-200VR is great. Some of my older non ED glass is not so great.

I have been a little underawed by the 50mm range. I have to be pretty close to get the kind of shot I want, although, it is hard to argue with 1.4, or 1.2 in desperate situations.

I love shooting with a black background. Oh, and I spot meter on the face.

I sure don't know of any books on the subject. Most traditional photographer's are pretty humbled by attempting to shoot theatre, as I am by trying to shoot outside in the daylight. "What do you mean I have to shoot at F16, I never even knew that was on the dial!"

Just go practice and get frustrated and it will all start making sense.
--
Jeff Smith

Sure, basically, I have been forcing myself to re-learn my photography. Since getting my D70 I find myself using the auto settings far too much and getting far too frustrated when I cant acheive the results I am hoping for.

One of the frustrations came from white balance. I read on the board that a simple way of getting a really acurate white balance reading was to set your own with a plain white syrofoam coffee cup that you can get for free just about anywhere (and I have).

(if someone can explain it better, please do) In manual mode, push the wb button to the left of the LCD monitor until PRE flashes. Have your subject hold the cup (or place it in down in the setting) and take a "picture" of the cup. The flashing "pre" will now say "good" and your white balance will be set for your setting.

With this I am cutting down to almost no post processing of my pix, the most recent was my daughter's ice skaing pictures where usually I spend a lot of time getting the ice and skin tones to look accurate. Give it a try, it really works.

--
Debra
Nikon N90, D70 and the newest addition to the family, an UZI!

A few more pics from that night--

Jason

First -
theatre and low-light shooting is demanding, don't be frustrated with
the results, which bring many fewer "keepers". Forget trying to
capture movement in low light, it will drive you crazy

second
while we are all in love with colours, PP some of these shots to B&W.
The grainy, noisy, sometimes blurry colour shots can be rescued many
times when the same scene is B&W, either edited or OOC. ISO 1600
colours are mostly too weird anyway.

third
agree re the tripod for slow shutter. If this is too obvious, just brace
the camera against something for stability, it makes all the difference
at slow speeds.

fourth
low light lenses are a must - the 50/f.18 ( as you mentioned ) is perfect,
and for longer shots, the 85/f1.8 is incredible. Both would cost you under
$500 together. With those lenses, you can sometimes also stop down
to f/2.4 or f/2.8 and still get good images.

Also, if you do this regularly, try the B&W in-camera mode.
B&W helps one concentrate on light, rather than colour.

I have sometimes found that shooting an inside scene which shows up
as too dark can be re-created in PP-lightening editing, as long as the
original scene was shot from a stable platform, camera against something,
or tripodded.

Although the image shows as almost dark on the PC screen, the editing
can make an amazing difference, compared with a shot which might have
been shot at a slower shutter speed, and thus more blurry, so the shot is
visible in playback, but blurry.

I did'nt say that very well, but I have sometimes found that a really dark
shot will actually be clearer after editing, despite being grainy, because
of the originally faster shutter speed.

Last comment : on 1600 shots, try de-saturating in editing. It does not
improve whatever you shot, but the subtlety of the weaker un-saturated
images can be appealing . . .

good luck wiith everything
Keith

--
Sunshine :
The photographer's friend . . . And nemesis.