Drama Pictures

[SchoolBoyError]

The school I work in are putting on an Autumn performance that is on in a dark hall with effects lighting and a spot light. All the pictures that I have taken tend to wash out all the effects lighting if I use the flash and are two dark if I do not. I have a night landscape mode on the camera which seems pretty good but if the children move it blurbs the picture. There is a manual mode on the camera so I can alter any of the settings to what I want - I just don't know what to change them too!!! Any help would be greatly appreciated. It's a Kodak EasyShare Z612

Thanks

[beejaybee]

Welcome to the forum.

This sort of shot is going to be very diffucult with the camera you have. Try setting the ISO as high as it will go, not using flash but set a stop of overexposure compensation to fix the underexposure caused by the spot lighting.

You will probably find that you have lots of "digital noise" (speckles) in the image caused by the physics of the small sensor in the camera.

[SchoolBoyError]

I can set the ISO as high as 400 although the overexposure compensation changes automatically depending on how much light there is - I can't change that one. So if I turn the flash off too - is there anything else I should try? I'll give it a go at school in the morning and see how it works out.

Thanks

[SchoolBoyError]

It has pre set modes of:

Exposure and flash compensation
Aperture priority
Shutter priority

Would any of these be any good?

I think I said before that I've been using the Candlelight mode which seems to have given me the best results so far.

Thanks.

[Fen]

"Candlelight mode" will give you a longer exposure which will blur any action on the stage.

You don't want to use flash

You need to raise the ISO, this will allow a faster shutter speed. But raising the ISO will probably make the photos too noisy and unusable. I don't think your camera is up to the job.

[SchoolBoyError]

Oh......bugger.

[SchoolBoyError]

...although the Candlelight mode does use the flash it seems to be a very token gesture since it doesn't wash out any of the effects lights, spotlight etc but as you have said Fen it blurs the image if there is any movement which obviously isn't any good.

[Nod]

Maybe you could get the performers to pause at some critical moments to freeze thge action as it were. Not really an option during a performance but should be OK in a rehearsal (call it a "press show!").

[SchoolBoyError]

Now that's not a bad idea. We make a CD of photos and recording of the songs for them you see and I guess I just have to make the best of a bad situation. It's s shame because it looks really good with the effects but I caan't capture it too well unless they are very still!

[Learning]

Ask the childen if any of them has a parent who is a member of a photographic society, and owns a camera with big fat lenses. You will need to borrow the parent, not just the camera and lens.

[agp]

I have this same problem. Out hall has matt black paint and until you are used to it, is incredibly difficult to photograph in. My advice - take an exposure reading and REDUCE it by up to two stops. The main point of the photo is the actors. Get it right for them, and ignore 'general' light levels.

If you use Photoshop it is good to put fill light in, and then increase the blacks. Did this with my last series, and they look fantastic. Don't be afraid of black!