Photography of a theater play

Good Morning!

I am undertaking a theater play photography in the upcoming week, especially on Saturday, and i would like to give me some useful advice and solve some questions.

First, there is a unique technic that i have to use to achieve the best results?

Second, can i use flash during the performance?

What shutter speed i have to use to take steady photographs, but also enough lighten?

I want also to note that i don't have past experience of something like that, and overall i am a new photographer.

Thanks on account!

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Permalink Reply by Ed Harp on March 17, 2010 at 7:24am

Certainly answers to your questions depends upon a lot of variables some of which you know the answer and some you won't know until you get there. Try to get there early and do some test exposures. You may have to ask to have the stage lighting turned up...then again often they vary the lighting during the performance.

What is your equipment? Camera, lenses with f/stop range etc? If you are using 2.8 glass it will certainly help you shoot in the 1/250 and faster range to help freeze their motion and your steadiness. Of course this depends also on the focal length of our lens. If you are shooting with a 70-300 zoom then at 300mm the rule of thumb for hand-holding your camera without Image Stabilization is 1/300 sec or 1/the focal length shot.

Your ISO setting may have to be minimum of 800, most wouldn't shoot it any lower than 1600 ISO.

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Permalink Reply by Dimitris Karabikas on March 17, 2010 at 7:33am

My camera is a Canon 500d with EFS 18-55 IS lens. I bought it before a week, and i can't afford to buy another lens until the day of the play. I will use high ISO for sure and the small f. I want to take steady photos of the actors.

Thank you for your advice!

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Permalink Reply by Sean on March 17, 2010 at 10:27pm

You might want to look into renting a lens that will be able to shoot in dim lighting. Even though the theater lights look bright to our eyes it is really quite dim. See if you can get into the theater during a dress rehearsal. It will allow you to move throughout the theater without having to worry about the audience.