Settngs for stage performances?

My daughter is in a dance recital next week, and this will be the first time I've shot in these conditions with a DSLR. I've got Gary Friedman's A700 book and he recommneds Pmode, white balance on tungsten, focus-lock, AEL in spot metering mode. Meter on a performer when a white spotlight is on and use AEL, then use these settings for the entire performance, regardless of lighting changes. He doesn't mention it, but I would assume Auto ISO. I'll give this a try, but any other suggestions would be appreciated. I should have a few opportunities to play, since I can attend the dress rehearsal and the actual recital. Flash is not permitted.

I haven't done much dance, but I have done a number of musicals. I always use aperture priority and have the lens wide open. I tend to use iso 1600, I find iso 3200 doesn't provide enough latitude and noise can be a problem. Although I will use iso 3200 if I have to to get a reasonable shutter speed. For static or slow scenes, but might get away with 1/60s, but if there is a lot of movement, you will likely need to try and get something like 1/200s. If you are OK with PP, you might consider raw as this will give a little more leeway on exposure.

The following link is to the last musical I shot. The exif data should give a sense of what shutter speeds you might need.

http://fhsdrama.zenfolio.com/p212999622

It will be good to attend a rehearsal if you can, as this can give you a sense of the speed of the performance and can give an idea of opportunities when the performers may be moving less.

Good luck!

--
Richard B.
http://www.pbase.com/richard_b

I am following this thread closely since my oldest daughter will be singing in a choir performance tonight (and in future) and I just got my new A300x yesterday with hopes of photographing her performance. I am new to photography along with the camera, so any info and learning I can get here isboth valuable and much appreciated.

Would it be possible to ask what lens you used to take this shot? I am guessing I will be using the 55-200 kit lens so I can get a close up as well shots of the entire choir. I won't be using a flash (only have the built-in flash right now, and I don't think they allow flash photography anyway).

Suggestions on settings would b very appreciated.

• Maybe it's possible to take some testshots before the event, with a test person and the lights on?

• For theatrical light, I would start from a light temperature of about 3000K (or Tungsten setting). If the FACES look too red in your LCD, dial down a bit.

Don't bother to correct white-balance: show-lights may vary in hue and intensity every minute, it's a part-of-the-art...

• Set ISO to 800, and if the exposure arrows start to blink go up to 1600 (or higher if really needed).

• Spot- or centre-meter from the FACES; make these look natural (well-defined) on your LCD; everything else matters less

• If you choose S-mode, set the shutter speed to something you can handle (something between 1/10 and 1/100 second in my case; know your own stability and trust AS/SSS; or use a monopod). If persons are rather fast moving all the time, dial up to 1/125 or faster.

• Or if you prefer Aperture-mode, with a good lense you can use apertures between 2.8 and 5.6 to get sharp enough images (if well focussed) at reasonable shutter speeds.

• Now you may lock good exposure settings with AE-lock (set to toggle, so you can leave it there)

• Or copy the settings of a good testshot to manual settings, so they will stay where you set them, and do small corrections as needed.
• If possible, use BIG cards and shoot in Raw; it's a bit more work afterwards, but you'll have more of a latitude to play/work with.

Good luck!

Bart

I had to do a musical at school as well, and very well used the rehearsals to find out that using the 50 mm 1.7 was the very best option. It allowed to keep the ISO setting a bit lower. I very comfortably could stay at some distance from the scene. A bit cropping did the rest. The light was changing so rapidly that spot metering was difficult. Instead I used -2/3 underexposure. I used the "sports mode" of the A700 for some very rapid scenes.

See the results on http://picasaweb.google.nl/janvanbogaert/GriezelkwietenZaterdag
--
jvb

Not sure if you were referecing the shots in the link I posted, but all the shots were with the Minolta 70-210 (beercan). I was seated about 15 seat rows back and I usually try to sit at the end of a row, so I can shoot accross open space towards the stage. I don't think I mentioned it, but I always use auto white balance and adjust for natural skin tones in PP (as far as the stage lighting will allow.)
--
Richard B.
http://www.pbase.com/richard_b

vabirdy said:

My daughter is in a dance recital next week, and this will be the
first time I've shot in these conditions with a DSLR.

Click to expand...

Good luck !

I just shot 900 pictures over 2 days at my daughters ballet reheasal & recital. (I was asked by the teacher to take pictures). I shot the 28-75/2.8 from front row at the rehearsal, and 85/1.4 from the balcony during the recital (a 50-150/2.8 or 70-200/2.8 would have been ideal).

vabirdy said:

Pmode,

Click to expand...

Probably reasonable - I shot A mode and varied from f/2 (on the 85/1.4) to f/3.5. Shutter speeds ranged from 1/125s to 1/160s and motion blur was generally well-controlled, but 1/200s would have been better for some shots.

vabirdy said:

white balance on tungsten

Click to expand...

Good. I had the A700 set to Auto and WB was a tad too warm (it always is on the 7D or A700 in tungsten). I set WB to tungsten in ACR for all shots and they look fine that way.

vabirdy said:

focus-lock

Click to expand...

This would not have worked for me. DOF was too shallow and I was alternating between AF and MF and tweaking focus frequently between shots. (I did the rehearsal from front row handheld and the recital from the balcony on tripod, but with the panning lock loosened up most of the time - tended to use AF for the handheld stuff, alternating for the tripod shots).

vabirdy said:

AEL in spot metering mode. Meter on a
performer when a white spotlight is on and use AEL, then use these
settings for the entire performance, regardless of lighting changes.

Click to expand...

I found center-weighted did a pretty good job. After an initial edit (which knocked the 900 shots down by 50%) I ran everything through ACR (more for cropping & straightening than anything else) to level out the exposures.

Lighting was inconsistent across the stage; nobody was running a spot on the performers, so performers at the front of the stage were more brightly lit than those at the back. I thought about trying out DRO, but I figured I'd be shooting primarily at ISO 1600 and with little time to experiment, went on the assumption that DRO at high ISO results in a lot of noise. I made fairly extensive use of mild "fill light" in ACR for a lot of shots.

vabirdy said:

He doesn't mention it, but I would assume Auto ISO.

Click to expand...

I've never used Auto ISO on the 7D, but tried it on the A700 at the rehearsal and used it for the recital, too. I figured if I didn't use Auto, I'd blindly set it to 1600, so why not use Auto and let it occasionally choose something lower.

I've just about finished PPing the pics and hoping to have them uploaded within the next 24 hours. I can send you a link if interested.

• Dennis

--
Gallery at http://kingofthebeasts.smugmug.com

I'd love to have a link to see your pics. Thanks for your comments!

..... Mark

Very nice shots, Richard! Looks like ISO 1600 did a nice job for you. Did you use any DRO on these? What about NR?

I actually kind of enjoy post processing, so I plan to shoot RAW. It will be interesting to see how things turn out, since I only have two lenses, a Minolta 35-70mm f4.0 and a Tamron 200-400mm f5.6. Both lenses do a nice job, but their max apertures will make this a little more challenging.

Thanks ..... Mark

I didn't use DRO, just shot in raw. NR was set to low.
--
Richard B.
http://www.pbase.com/richard_b

vabirdy said:

I'd love to have a link to see your pics. Thanks for your comments!

..... Mark

Click to expand...

I put pics up at ctyankee.printroom.com if you want to see what I got with the settings I described. Keep in mind lighting will vary in stage performances; in this case it was primarily at the front of the stage and changed very little throughout the performance (no moving spot on performers).

• Dennis

--
Gallery at http://kingofthebeasts.smugmug.com

Nice shots. My daughter is just a year or two older than those girls, and from what I've seen in past performances the stage will be similarly lit.

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