Taking Photographs of A Stage Show Rehersal

[Camilla84]

Hi Im new here and I would like some advice regards photographing a stage show. I have been asked by a friend to photograph a rehersal of a show that they are doing.
I have a Nikon D80 but i have never shot this kind of work before and i wasnt sure whether or not i should use flash or whether to use a higher ISO setting and no flash.
Any tips at all would be useful.

Thank you

 

[SimonTALM]

Firstly welcome to the forums - these are some of the friendliest about IMO

A couple of tips from doing this in the past (a long time ago)

Don't use flash - it completely spoils the lighting effect (and also distracts the actors).
Spot meter from the actor's faces and focus on the eyes of the person speaking.
If you don't have any f2.8 lenses you may need to raise the ISO a bit to get the best if it's a dark show. Usual rules apply though - keep it as low as possible perhaps using AP mode set at the widest aperture [small f number] with Auto ISO enabled is the way to go.

Think about converting the shots to B+W post capture as this some times works very well.

 

[Camilla84]

Hi simon

thank you for that piece of advice hopefully it will go well tomorrow!
I was shooting some pics at a gig last week and the lighting was so awful i was having to shoot at 3200 ISO to get any decent pics, luckily some turned out well. My aperture setting wasnt going any lower than around 3.5 though which i dont really understand why.
Ive got a nikon d80 but im not sure what f my lens is.

 

[mattyh]

Thats probably the lowest your lens would go... are you using one of the lenses that comes with the camera?

ISO 3200 isn't that bad on the D80, i've taken loads with that ISO at the weekend, most have come out ok, and will look fine once I process them, so don't be scared to ramp up the iso!

 

[photostar_1]

Hi Camilla,

If it's a full dress and lighting rehearsal, the lights should be good enough for your lens, as there are usually good spotlights etc. Get close to the action, use a tripod and watch your shutter speed...try to make sure it doesn't drop below the equivalent focal length (eg 50mm = 1/50th, 200mm = 1/200th. If this means having to get the ISO up high, don't worry too much. It sometimes looks good and if it doesn't, use noiseware to clean it up.

Try to always focus on the eyes...that way, even if you are using a really wide aperture and therefore a shallow depth of field, you should be ok.

Hope it goes ok.

 

[KIPAX]

I really enjoyed doing mine...full dress rehersal.. those guys work hard at acting. its not as easy as it looks.

I shot from back of theatre wiht 70-200 on iso 800/1600 and very low shutter speeds... I did a few closer with the 50/1.8 but really not enough DOF

A lot of the lighting left me with coloured shadows.. I converted most of those to B/W and they then looked great.

Hope you enjoy it.. It can be quite good fun

some of mine