need advice for dance recital

Ruespal · May 30, 2012

Hi- This is my first post. I need some advice for the upcoming weekend. I have a canon 60D with a 24-105mm lens and a 50mm 1.4 lens. Just got this set up a short time ago and still trying to get comfortable with it. Question- I will be taking pictures at a friends dance recital and tripods aren't allowed. Not sure where I'll be sitting so I'll take both lenses and decide which one when I get there. I'd like to use the 50 cuz of the lighting but if I'm further back I'll need the longer lens.My question is what would you use for iso,etc for this. Can't take a long exposure cuz the kids are always moving. Any suggestions would be appreciated.......

TCampbell · May 31, 2012

This completely depends on their lighting. It won't be nearly as bright as outdoor shooting. If you can manage a shutter speed of 1/500th, that will "freeze" action. You can test by cheating it slower (1/250th), but for dance, I probably wouldn't go any slower than that and, at that speed, you can get some "motion blur" if they're moving quickly.

You will want a low f-stop, but keep in mind that low f-stops create shallow depth of field. At a distance of 25', a 50mm f/1.4 on your camera will produce a useful depth of field of just barely over 4'. That's enough to capture one dancer in sharp focus. If they're dancing as a group, then it's unlikely that everyone will be in focus (unless they're in a neat line and all the same distance.) At f/4, that DoF jumps up to 12 feet for the same 25' distance. f/1.4 picks up eight times as much light.

Switch the camera to "spot" metering (not "evaluative" metering -- which is the default metering mode) and target the dancer's skin (e.g. face) with the center spot on the camera to take a meter reading. If there is a dark background on the stage (and there often is), then it'll throw off the reliability of the meter reading if you leave the camera in "evaluative" metering mode. Don't forget to change the camera back to evaluative mode after you're done. You can then test the lighting by setting the f-stop as low as possible, set the shutter speed to 1/250th (and as I mentioned above... that may not be fast enough) and then increase the ISO until the camera indicates that you have a good exposure.

As you increase ISO, you'll get more "noise" in the images. BUT... if you don't increase the ISO and instead slow the shutter, you'll get blurry shots from hand-held / no-tripod photography and fast moving subjects. You *can* reduce the noise in post-processing using your computer software, but there's not a whole lot you can do about the alternative (burry shots) other than process it with some interesting special effects filters and then try to pass it off as impressionistic art.

Once you find the metering that gives you acceptable exposures, just leave the camera on manual and keep those exposure settings dialed in. Don't let the camera auto-meter and set the exposure. You should not need to change the exposure settings UNLESS they change the light levels (in which case you will have to adjust.)

tirediron · May 31, 2012

I would say that Tim's post has pretty much nailed it. :thumbup: I'm not sure what the high-ISO characteristics of the 60D are, but I'm guessing that acheiving a 1/250 SS may be a challenge. Know how high you raise your ISO and still get acceptable results.

enzodm · May 31, 2012

I agree with above hints (manual in particular), and here there are three concert samples with 60D at ISO3200, f/2.8, around 1/125, but with not much movement: http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/people-photography/285149-concert-pictures.html

Ruespal · May 31, 2012

Thanks for the tips! Now I at least have somewhere to start..

manaheim · May 31, 2012

I've done my daughter's recitals for some years now... let me just say I'll personally eat my 70-200 2.8 with a knife and fork if you can pull off 1/500th of a second at anything under ISO 12,800. Lighting in these kinds of things tends to be HORRIBLE.

This means you want the fastest lens you can use at the closest range you can get. Keep in mind, however, you also want a decent perspective. Most stages will tend to be elevated over at least 1/3-1/2 of the seats... not ideal. This generally means you're going to want to be on whatever walkway is behind a large section of the seats that puts you at a decent level with the stage. This ALSO means that you're going to need longer focal lengths... which ALSO means you're going to NEED faster shutter times... which also means you're going to NEED higher ISO... which means more noise... etc. See where this is going?

What I do is generally ...

1. Shoot RAW. Intentionally over-expose your shots by about 1-2 stops and back it down in post-processing (good way to deal with high ISO noise, but does create some other challenges... like having to shoot longer shutter times)
2. Shoot manual. Get the lighting for each individual number in the first couple seconds. Usually it's just a stop or two off each time, so pretty easy to adjust. Chimp a bit and check your exposure and histogram.
3. Brace your arms against your knees or a railing or something to steady yourself... use VR if you have it. Set your shutter so you can get the motion frozen as much as possible.
4. Make sure you're not in anyone's way! Remember lots of folks are there watching their kids, so try to get a good centralish spot where you're not in people's line of site. I usually will find a spot off to the side on a set of stairs that gets me at about eye level when sitting and park my butt there for a bit. Works pretty well.

Here's an example... (mind you, I'm making no claims to composition here, just showing you what you can do if you get all the variables lined up right)

And at 100% crop (that's my daughter there)...

hmmm... something wrong with my colorspace or something... that looks way more red than it should. Odd.

These are ISO 1600, 135mm, 1/160th of a second, F2.8.

Anyway, that gives you an idea.