Pictures at plays and recitals

[Brooksall]

My Daughter does lots of plays, recitals, dance with lots of stage light and action. I've been using a Kodak Easyshare DX6340 with really bad results. I've played with a lot of the manual settings but still most of my pictures are too blurred to keep. Using any zoom makes it worse. From reading other posts on this site I understand this is a difficult setting for taking pictures but I'm not ready to give up yet! First, is my camera capable of decent pictures in this environment and if not could you please advise on some cameras and a price range that would do a better job. If I could just get decent pictures I would be happy. I'm missing too many opportunities and that makes me sick! Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

[OldSchool]

Hi Brooksall,

I know absolutely nothing about your camera. But, what you want is high ISO that is pretty much noise free. My p&s is terrible beyond ISO 300. My DSLR is pretty good even at ISO 1600, but noise creeps in if underexposed.

So, I'd try setting your camera at the highest ISO (or load high ISO film) and then shoot in shutter priority at 1/60 or 1/100. You will still get some blur at those shutter speeds if there is movement on stage. But, look at the exposure and noise. If you are using zoom, you'll have to speed up the shutter. If these images are not good, then you may need a different camera.

Another option (if they allow it) is to use a flash. Typically, your camera pop-up will not have enough power. You'll probably have to use a flash gun.

Good luck,
Tim

[Lava Lamp]

The bad news is that you probably can't get good shots in that environment with the camera you have, no matter the settings. For best results, you need a high ISO setting (800 or 1600) and a large aperture (f/ 2.8). Your shutter speed needs to be 1/160 or better. The flash should be off (it's useless).

[Bodryn]

Probably the most important thing you need is image stabilization. With that feature you could set your shutter speed to perhaps 1/15 second or slower and still get clear pictures. Use your widest aperture. With a Canon S1 or S2 set at maximum ISO you would probably have what you need. Even at high zoom, these cameras have good aperture settings. Otherwise you would probably want a top end camera, probably a digital single lens reflect (dSLR) that would have ISO speeds like 1600 and 3200 and lenses that have image stabilization.

[another view]

perhaps 1/15 second or slower and still get clear pictures

True, but the subjects couldn't be moving at all. It may be possible to shoot this way if you time your shots well, but most cameras like this have a long lag time (takes a second or two after pressing the shutter release to have it go off).

High ISO speeds without flash are probably the best way to get nice results, although it's tricky. Flash might not be allowed anyway, and could be distracting to the actors.

DSLR's are going to be a lot better choice for this type of work - especially with a fast lens. By fast, I mean large maximum aperture like f2.8 for a zoom or even faster for a prime (non-zoom) lens like a 50 f1.8 or so.