I have a gig coming up at the start of December. I will be photographing a dance performance (two actually) that is being put on by a Professional Dance company for a School. The school supposedly has a state of the art stage and possibly lighting system to go along with it.
This type of photography is new to me and I hope some of you out there with experience in this could lend some advice and suggestions.
I will be using a Canon 5D (XTi as back-up) with a choice of lenses. 17-40 4.0L, 28-75 2.8, and the 70-200 4.0L. I am hoping I will be able to be close enough to have the 28-75 on most of the time because of it's larger constant aperture.
One advantage I have is that the first show will be in the morning and the seating is going to be filled to capacity, but the second show later in the afternoon will be to a half filled auditorium, allowing me for better access and also a better idea of the show.
Any advice and suggestions would be great.

Gary,

Depending on lighting you will have a high ISO/wide open aperture setup pretty much all the time. The 28-75 will be a good range unless you can get right up to the stage with the 17-40. I have had no issues shooting the 17-40 with its f/4 max, but with either the f/4 or the f/2.8 you'll have to try and go for peak action. Focusing will be tricky, try and find contrast and keep the cross sensors at that spot. Use the stage and the lighting to your advantage, it adds mood.

I use the 17-40 with the 70-200 2.8 and have gotten some excellent stuff, even in really poor conditions. Since you'll be sanctioned to be there you should have free reign, so don't be afraid to move around to find the best angles. Before the show starts make sure you check if you can be backstage during the show and the best ways to get in and out of there. Find a spot off to the side where you can get some angles from behind without disturbing the show and making yourself visible.

I don't know how the lighting will be set up, but I typically expose for the main spotlights on my subject and let the rest fall into place. It really doesn't matter if background lights blow out as long as you have your subject well exposed, and the spots typically don't change much.

Have fun with it, get the safety shots and then get creative.

These were all taken at ISO 1600 wide open with my 20Ds, either with the 70-200 or the 17-40.

http://www.sebastiand.com/blogimages/2007-10-10-0957.jpg

http://www.sebastiand.com/blogimages/2007-10-10-1345.jpg

http://www.sebastiand.com/blogimages/2007-11-16-0216.jpg

Sebastian,

Yeah, I'm anticipating that I will be at 1600 the whole time, unless the lighting is very strong. I will see what happens. You have some good suggestions. I like the idea of getting behind and to the side of the performance for some more creative works.
A few things . . . I will be shooting everything in RAW.
White balance setting --- I do not wish to use Auto as it will try to neutralize everything and i would lose the moods and effects of the various color lights. I'm thinking I will just leave it set for tungsten and then can always batch adjust the temperature in Lightroom later if i feel it is too cool or warm.

Monopod--- I was considering bringing my monopod along and thought it might be helpful when using the 70-200 especially. It could give me an extra stop or two. In theory it seems like a good idea, but i do not know if it is something that will hinder me overall in the process. ( I would hate to be hustling down the aisle and then trip and fall over my third leg):nonod: :yikes:

Thanks for your time. Your photos are not only very good but inspiring as well.

Gary,

I forgot to mention white balance, glad you brought it up. Most of the lights I've shot with work best at incandescent WB. The colors are true with a slight warmth. Obviously, the rest of the lights will screw with the white balance, that's why I prefer not to use auto, it's too inconsistent form frame to frame.

Monopod? I'd say no. I have no idea about the place you'll be shooting in, but you really need to be mobile. And the extra stop or two you'd gain would only be for still subjects, for moving targets it does nothing but hamper you.

Thanks for your time. Your photos are not only very good but inspiring as well.

Thanks for the kind words. It's just nice to be able to share some of my experiences with this particular subject, I shoot a lot of this stuff. Let me know if you have any other questions.

P.S. RAW is good, I shoot it 100% for all this stuff.

I certainly can't add anything to what Sebastian said! I will agree that RAW is a huge advantage with this kind of stuff especially, and also that a monopod will be more trouble than it's worth for the couple of shots where it might come in handy.

If you have the time it might be interesting to show some motion using a tripod and a very long exposure. It seems dance would call for something like this. Just a thought.

Unless the audience is terribly important in your shots, shoot the dress rehersal. I have done that for several theatrical productions. No one to get in your way or you to get in their way. Much easier and sometimes can come with some really comical results that you just don't get on show nights.

How does the Canon handle at 3200? I typically shoot with the white balance at incandescent. Set the meter for spot. I've found that a center isle seat about 8-10 rows back works very well for my 28-70/2.8 and 70-200/2.8i VR. Can you add the high speed noise reduction after the fact since you are shooting RAW, if not and there is such a thing in camera, i would suggest giving it a try ahead of time.

Good Luck with it.

I have not had good luck unless I have a fast lens on the camera. I'm going to say that the best results I'm gotten has been with the 50mm F1.4 prime. But you can get very good results with the 70-200 F2.8. The best results you will get with lenses with F stops of 2.8 and lower. But you have to which the DOF with the F1.4s.

Sebastian . . .thanks again. I have asked and was told that there most likely will not be any allowance behind or on side of stage during performance and that documentary type shots is what is wanted. i will do all the SAFE stuff but will throw in some creative ones along the way. I am sure if there is a good creative shot or two, she will be happy to have them.

Steve. . . yes, Seb covered alot for me here. I never shoot anything but RAW because of it's potential for recovering from undesired results.

Mule . . .I agree that would be a cool artistic approach to some shots, but i know a tripod there will be out of the question. thanks for your thoughts

gryphonslair99 . . .Good advice. however in this case they will be having a dress rehearsal in another setting without stage or lights. they will be showing up early on the day of the performance to mark locations for the dancers on the stage and to discuss the show with the lighting team. i will use that time in the morning to get my settings and to figure out where my best spots to be are.
thanks

Michael . . .I do not have the 5D yet, but I have researched it to death and it handles 1600 very well and can be expanded to 3200 but am not sure of the results from 3200. It is said to be an excellent low-light camera as far as noise and focusing is concerned. It is just not a very fast camera. I think the 40D would be a better camera for this type of thing, but I do not see myself doing this too often. . . but who knows.
Neat Image does a great job of removing any noise from my XTi in the few cases where i might need to, and so I'm thinking whatever I might get from the 5D at 3200 could be very well reduced with it as well. I will experiment with this camera for a while before the event and hope to get familiar with it fast. Thanks Mike.

GRF . . .I think unless the lighting is very good I will most likely have the 28-75 2.8 on most of the time. I have the 70-200 4.0 Thanks for the comments.


Another issue---------------
I do not use Auto focus very often and would like some advice on the best way to go about using it for this situation. Would it be best to have it set to AI servo, where the camera follows the target and adjusts focus to it constantly as it is moving. Also, should I set the focus target point to the center or keep adjusting that as needed, which seems like a huge burden.
OR . . .is it out of the question to focus manually for this.
Thanks all

I can't really help on that one since I wear tri-focals all day just to get from point A to B. I rely heavily on autofocus and am always changing focus areas in the D200 to fit the needs of the shot.

Another issue---------------
I do not use Auto focus very often and would like some advice on the best way to go about using it for this situation. Would it be best to have it set to AI servo, where the camera follows the target and adjusts focus to it constantly as it is moving. Also, should I set the focus target point to the center or keep adjusting that as needed, which seems like a huge burden.
OR . . .is it out of the question to focus manually for this.
Thanks all

Gary,

I would go Manual if you don't have much light because you will have more control over the focusing. The 5D focus's pretty well in low light but it can get confused if there is not much contrast.

If there is enough light the AI Servo is the mode to be in with IS on if the lens has it.

I would use the centre point for focusing so that you know what is being focused and then quickly recompose. For wildlife I sometimes use one of the extremities as the focus point so that the bird moves into the photo, e.g. the left horizontal if the bird is flying left to right.

I have got so used to selecting the AF point I can now do it without taking my eye of the viewfinder. Part of the reason I chose Canon.

Roger

Thanks Roger. I will try manual but will also be relying on auto much of the time as I will be holding down the shutter and firing off bursts trying to capture those good moments.
I'm expected to get about 500 shots for the day, as that was what their last photographer used to average.
I think i will get comfortable with this camera quickly as the layout seems to be similiar to my old Elan 7.
Hopefully, with their permission I will post whatever good shots I get from the day to let you see what came about.
thanks again

clip...
Another issue---------------
I do not use Auto focus very often and would like some advice on the best way to go about using it for this situation. Would it be best to have it set to AI servo, where the camera follows the target and adjusts focus to it constantly as it is moving. Also, should I set the focus target point to the center or keep adjusting that as needed, which seems like a huge burden.
OR . . .is it out of the question to focus manually for this.
Thanks all

With low light I have to agree that auto focus is not a good idea. And I do have to use tri focal glasses.

GRF, from all that I have heard about the 5D it should be able to do fairly well in auto focus that day. Being that the performers will be under light I think it would work quite well, but I will have to see when the day comes. I figure I will be using both manual and auto. thanks for the comments.

I can't really help on that one since I wear tri-focals all day just to get from point A to B. I rely heavily on autofocus and am always changing focus areas in the D200 to fit the needs of the shot.

MJS, one of the things that really bothered me about the smaller sensors is the smaller veiwfinders. My eyesight had always been excellent, but getting up into my mid 40's now I find myself squinting in the XTi viewfinder trying to achieve focus. . .and forget about it in the night. I don't know if you have that issue with the D200 as it supposedly has a magnified viewfinder. Looking through the finder of the 5D or my old Elan 7 film SLR is like a breathe of fresh air.

Thanks for all the help on this thread. I found Sebastians advice on exposure to be very good. I spot metered on my subjects in the lighting and kept that exposure throughout, not having to worry about it. Exposure was mostly 1/125, 3.5 and 1600iso I found I needed at least 1/125 to freeze the motion of the dancers, and even then the hands were sometimes still blurry. With more experience I will go for the motion blur at times to add some spice and creativity to the shots.
Focusing was a bit of a worry as you cannot really tell how sharp things are in the LCD screen. I used AI servo alot and would switch focus points to where I wanted it to be in any given composition. Sometimes I went manually. It all seemed to work out well in the end.
Here is the link to the thread in the View finder where I posted a few of the images.
Thanks for the help
http://forums.photographyreview.com/showthread.php?p=254857&posted=1#post254857