Taking pics in a theater

[858Smith]

hi! i'm here for some help. i'm VERY new to photography, buying my first SLR a few weeks ago. i've been experimenting a lot until i get the desired results, but this friday i have a graduation to attend & it's obviously once in a lifetime & i won't have much time to experiment w/ the settings.

can anyone give me a ballpark of what the settings (if that's what it's even called) would be? it'll be in a play theater, pretty dark except for the stage.

this is probably a dumb question & i apologize. like i said, i'm very new & really struggling w/ this camera!

thanks for any help at all, even if it's to tell me i make no sense

ETA: oops, duh! i have a nikon d5100 w/ 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens! (kit lens)

 

[brunerww]

Hi 858Smith - congratulations on the new camera and welcome to the world of digital photography! Sadly, it will be a challenge to capture sufficient light for good photographs in a darkened theater with the kit lens. Your maximum aperture (f3.5 at the wide end), and your short focal length (55mm at the long end), both work against you. You really need a longer telephoto with a wider aperture for graduations - but I imagine that you don't have time between now and Friday to buy or borrow another lens.

A few things you might be able to do:

- turn the ISO up on your camera to 6400 to increase light sensitivity (if that doesn't work , you may have to use extended ISO, but that will affect the quality of your images)
- get as close as possible to the stage
- use flash when permitted and appropriate

Hope that's helpful,

Bill

 

[KmH]

The reason the ISO has to be turned up is to allow a sufficiently fast shutter speed to control camera shake and subject motion blur.

When there is not a lot of light the first thine we can do is open the lens aperture so it lets in more light, like opening a faucet so more water comes out.
We can also leave the shutter open longer to let light reach the image sensor for a longer period of time, like leaving a bucket under the faucet longer.
But as mentioned above, by using a longer shutter there is the chance that the camera or something in the scene will move and be blurred in the final photo.

Increasing the ISO has the apparent effect of making the image sensor more sensitive to light so not as much light is needed, which allows is to use a faster shutter speed.
However, there is no free lunch, and increasing the ISO will mean more image noise in your photos. It is better to have photos with image noise than it is to have blurry photos.

To learn how, it helps to know why.

You aren't going to master using your camera in manual mode in just a couple of days, and as Bill has pointed out your kit lens also has aperture (can't open wide enough) and focal length (insufficient 'reach') specs that won't help.

So I second Bills 3 recommendations - turn up the ISO, get close, use flash when possible. All of that may mean just putting the camera in it's green AUTO mode and letting the camera's software programming do the best it can from as close to the stage as you can get.

 

[fjrabon]

yeah, I agree that for your situation, just use green auto. The D5100 knows how to take a better picture than you do right now, so let it. Like has been said, you can help it out by getting as close as you possibly can.

 

[texkam]

If you want to/have to shoot with no flash I would at least consider shooting in manual setting if you can get to where you feel comfortable. It's not that hard. Here's what you're up against if you want to shoot in manual with no flash: Your first two settings are pretty much no brainers. After switching to manual mode, 1. Make the camera most sensitive to light, set ISO to 6400. 2. Get the most light through your lens opening, set aperture to 3.5 (when you zoom in it will change to 5.6).

This leaves you with only having to worry about adjusting one thing, shutter speed. In manual setting, look at your built in light meter and adjust your shutter speed until your meter is in the middle, or at "0". Important, make sure you're metering for what you want to be properly exposed, the light falling on the subject, not the dark shadows around them. Your meter reading will constantly change depending on where you are pointing it. Don't let the meter fool you by it reading all that black. You only care about your subject. Meter for THAT part of the exposure. Shoot a pic and look at it (chimp). Too light? Higher shutter speed. Dark? Lower the speed of your shutter because that increases the duration of light on your camera's sensor. Make sense?

Now, make note of this shutter speed. If your shutter speed is above 1/100th sec. you are in pretty good shape. Most movement will be frozen. Less than that and you will start to notice some motion blur. Less than 1/60 and you will start to notice greater motion blur and camera shake. If this is the case, you would want to switch to auto and take your chances with the flash photos the camera will give you.

Keep in mind, in manual you, not your camera would have to increase or decrease your shutter speed as the light conditions change (probably not that much, as the lighting will be constant), but that's what your light meter is there for. Keep your meter reading in the middle and you're good. Practice in your dark living room with a lighted subject and see if this comes easily to you. If so, this will give you another option from auto/flash.

 

[gw2424]

6400??? Isn't that a bit excessive??

 

[rlemert]

I had the same problem at my son's high school graduation last spring. I used aperture priority so I could open everything up and get as much light in as possible, but someone told me I should have used shutter priority to make sure I stopped any motion. I don't remember what I did for ISO - I think I upped it as much as I could, but I really don't remember. Most of my images sucked as bad as you would expect, but I was able to salvage a few in post.

One thing to watch out for that I had to deal with: they had white table cloths set out that the diplomas laid on, and white covers over many of the chairs. When you had the dark suits/caps and gowns on the darkened stage with spotlights shining on the bright white cloths, you had a tremendous dynamic range problem. You'll need to try to avoid getting them in frame or you'll either blow out the highlights or make everything else too dark.

(I think the darkened hall is a scam by the pros to force you to buy their shots of the ceremony - :mrgreen

My advice is to take a lot of pictures because this is an extremely difficult situation. If things work out you may get a few acceptable shots, which is more than you'd get if you don't make the effort.

 

[2WheelPhoto]

This shot was around ISO 4000 with my 70-200 wide open. I had no control of light/shadows and stage wasn't lit well.

Another event pic shot around the same in crappy available light:

 

[rambler]

Follow texam's advice, but be sure to play around with both under and over exposures. Check to see if your camera has a "silent shutter" setting. There will be no annoying "click" when you press the shutter.

 

[858Smith]

WOW! thank you all so much for the replies. i'm a little overwhelmed, so i'm going to study each post haha i really appreciate it, everyone!

@2wheelphoto, those are beautiful pictures! thanks for sharing!

 

[2WheelPhoto]

WOW! thank you all so much for the replies. i'm a little overwhelmed, so i'm going to study each post haha i really appreciate it, everyone!

@2wheelphoto, those are beautiful pictures! thanks for sharing!

Thanks, hope that helps. Get a body that works well in high ISO's if you plan to shoot ambient light. I only do this when studio lights and flash are not allowed or not a good solution =)

 

[texkam]

6400??? Isn't that a bit excessive??

Yes it is, but I was trying to make it pretty foolproof.

858Smith, if you find that you have enough light to drop your ISO down and still have a fast enough shutter speed to freeze movement then by all means go for it. More people are disappointed by blurry pictures than they are by grainy/noisy pics. Remember a high ISO will let you shoot in darker conditions, but you pay for it with more digital noise. Yes, there's always a tradeoff. Once again, do a little practicing and hopefully this will all start to make sense and you'll have an "ah ha" moment.

 

[bratkinson]

Like Roy Sheiders' character in the movie JAWS: "You're going to need a bigger boat!", you're going to need a faster lens.

Just this past Sunday, our Christmas contada/stage play was followed by our pastors' message with just a single spotlight for illumination. Unfortuntately, the meter in the 5D3 registered the scene as somewhat dark, as it wanted the areas outside the spotlight "properly exposed" as well. A couple of test shots in 'scene intelligent auto', just for kicks, greatly overexposed the pastors' face as it was metering the whole scene (evaluative) as being too dark.

Shooting in manual, the histogram was waaaay to the left, as the camera thought I was underexposing. But the results were well worth it. This is a size-reduced from 6 meg, SOOC Large JPG (I shoot RAW+LJPG), taken with the 135 f2.0L wide open, 1/160th, ISO 2500, no flash, on a monopod.

View attachment 28327

 

[texkam]

^ Good example of what I was talking about. It's important to understand why your camera does what it does.

Important, make sure you're metering for what you want to be properly exposed, the light falling on the subject, not the dark shadows around them. Your meter reading will constantly change depending on where you are pointing it. Don't let the meter fool you by it reading all that black. You only care about your subject. Meter for THAT part of the exposure. Shoot a pic and look at it (chimp).

 

[858Smith]

thank you so much!!! i came back on here to study everyone's posts b/c i'm so lost. hopefully i will have a little time to experiment beforehand in the theater, but i doubt it b/c i'll be on a work break & have to be in & out. i'll let you all know how it goes!

THANKS AGAIN!!!