Aimee

[Derrel]

It is a very cluttered and messy looking performing area. This is exactly the kind of place where a 180 mm,200 mm,or 300 mm prime lens and a fairly wide aperture would help to sublimate a lot of that clutter. This is not an ideal place to shoot but it is what it is. A wide f-stop and the longest lens possible Would be my guiding principle here for many shots.

 

[vintagesnaps]

Yep, they've got a lot of stuff sitting there! lol

I like using typically shorter telephotos; like Derrel said a telephoto is a better option for events than wide angle. Shooting film without the crop factor I usually use a 135mm; with a digital crop camera it depends on the venue size but usually a 90 or maybe 135mm. I might use a 50mm if there are decorations or a need to get the whole room to show all the tables etc. I'm not usually at a huge venue or standing a mile away to need a long telephoto.

It just depends, I find that anything bright or colorful even with a larger aperture is often going to create visually distracting blobs of color. If it's more plain black/dark it may not show so much. But that stuff's still going to be there and it takes figuring out how to deal with it best.

I taught myself shooting hockey how to make empty seats 'disappear' (crowd shots for marketing purposes, sponsors don't want to be shown seats without butts in them!). I'd still try changing vantage points and I find with a short telephoto I could move something like one of those umbrella posts so it's not cutting thru/in front of a performer; sometimes a change of a step or two makes a difference. I've sometimes scrunched downed or leaned or whatever to get into a slightly different position. It takes experimenting and practice. At least if they're welcoming you being there and taking pictures that could be a good opportunity to practice and learn.

 

[Fujidave]

Agree the stage is very bad/messy.