The Nutcracker Ballet

osumisan · Nov 17, 2012

Do you have advice for shooting the Nutcracker Ballet? This is a typical venue: dark theater, bright spot lights, white costumes, and shooting from about 50 feet from the stage. I shot this show several years ago with my Nikon D70, 80-200mm f/2.8 lens from the mezzanine. 80% of the shots I took then were not acceptable in my standards but did get lucky a few times. I probably came away from the show with about 10 photos that I would consider showing to others.

This time, I have a full-sensor camera but will use the same lens and will be shooting from about the same distance away. I plan on cranking the ISO up to around 2000 or higher which will give me a shutter speed between 1/250 and 1/640 (not sure until I get to the theater). Not sure for white balance if my expo disc will be sufficient due to the variety of stage lighting that will be combined on the performers or if I should just shoot on AUTO WB.

I a perfect world, I would sit close to the stage and shoot with my 85mm f/1.8 lens but I think I will be too far away to use that one.

Do you have techniques that have worked for you in the past under these difficult conditions? Auto focus or manual focus?

Thanks for any advice on this topic.

tirediron · Nov 17, 2012

This is always tough - I would sent my camera to the highest usable ISO, shutter-priority and single-point AF. The 80-200 is a great lens, BUT unfortunately its AF is rather slow, so you're going to have to track the subject and anticipate the moment; in hunting parlance, lead the target. Good luck.

KmH · Nov 17, 2012

The AF of the 80-200 was never to slow for me when I was shooting actions sports.
It seems some people need a fair amount of practice using AF-C to get sharp shots. Some % of action shots will be OOF regardless.

You don't mention which FF camera body you now have, but it will likely AF faster than your D70 did with the same 80-200 lens.

MLeeK · Nov 17, 2012

I'd actually set a custom white balance according to the lighting in the theater during the play-with the house lights dimmed. Here's why: The colored lights on the stage you will want them to be showing properly. Auto white balance will attempt to compensate for them if at all possible. Not that you can't fix in post if you are shooting raw, but it just seems easier to use a good custom balance.

I'd probably aim for a shutter at least 1/500 to stop those leaps. I don't think it's going to stop them even then.

What are you shooting with? Most full frame cameras can pretty well handle ISO's above 2000 today.

I'd probably choose to shoot full manual on this one because of the fact that you are working with spot lights. If your meter is hitting the black you will end up with overexposed images, but if it happens to hit the spot you're apt to get underexposed. Your overall lighting won't change and you know it should be black with the spots being in proper exposure. That won't change throughout the play for the most part. AI Servo mode. Single focus point

I am guessing it's going to be pretty on par with my well lit football fields in which case I'd be at f/3.5 to f/4; shutter of 1/500 and ISO of 3200-12800. I don't like to shoot wide open if necessary, thus my choice for aperture. 1/500 is my football shutter minimum. If you can get faster I'd do it.

Auto focus. Once you have focused on the stage one time you've 'pre-focused' so you shouldn't have hunting problems. Your subjects will be lit by the stage lighting-preventing focus hunting problems. Manual focus is hard to begin with, but will be even harder if you are trying to focus in the dark.

osumisan · Nov 18, 2012

Thank you for those replies. I always like getting input from other points of view and it's reassuring when other opinions are consistent with mine. Tonight is the night of the Nutcracker Shoot, but I got a chance to practice last night at a local high school theater production of McBeth. Shooting in this condition was about as difficult as I have faced. Aside from the lighting challenges, my D700 shutter noise was audible to those around me. This prompted me to move to the rear corner of the theater and even then, I only shot sparingly as to not be a constant distraction. The teacher/Director of the play gave me permission before the show to shoot.

My expo disc was not able to give me custom white balance setting, so I shot on auto WB. Here are a few sample photos, would love some GOOD advice on how to improve. All images shot with D700 with 80-200mm f/2.8 AF lens. ISO ranged from 2000 to 6400 depending on my mood at the time with shutter speeds also ranging from 1/60 to 1/160.

Now keep in mind, these are my BEST ones from the gallery. Others have different levels of over/underexposure and blur due to handholding at low shutter speed. Looking forward to hearing constructive criticism and help on my attempt to shoot the Nutcracker tonight in a different auditorium.

Tareq935 · Nov 18, 2012

Looks good.

osumisan · Nov 20, 2012

Shot the Nutcracker the night before last. Was a real challenge but was able to get a few good shots.

Shot from about 60 feet from stage with my 80-200mm f/2.8 lens. Most of my photos were overexposed and re-edited in lightroom. The white costumes were quite a challenge with the bright stage lights.

kateean2 · Nov 23, 2012

Really good.

bianni · Nov 23, 2012

The last group of photographs are all good. But I wish the 'en pointe' position of the right foot of the soloist was more straight.

TCampbell · Nov 23, 2012

GREAT shots.

BTW, over-exposure is a common problem in these situations. You'd think it'd be the opposite, but the light meter will evaluate the "whole" scene. Since most theatrical and concert lighting will have so many more dark areas than light areas the camera thinks it needs to bring up the exposure in order to see more detail in the shadows. As a result it over-exposes the parts that were not in shadow (and those were the parts where the exposure was most important.)

To counter this you have to choices:

1) Switch the camera to a spot-metering mode (instead of matrix-metering or evaluative-metering) and then target a performer's face.

2) If you leave the metering in matrix or evaluative mode, you can set the exposure compensation to under-expose by between 1 and 2 stops. It'll usually take at least 1 full stop but seldom more than 2. I find that about -1-1/3rd is probably fairly close.