Shooting Theater: Know Your Manual Settings

I recently photographed a theater performance by Students Live: Dream Camp 2009, a summer camp for South Korean children aged nine to thirteen interested in learning more about musical theater. They worked for three weeks on forty songs and tons of choreography which culminated in a short musical entitled "Journey to America."

Photographing a theatrical performance can be an extremely challenging experience, but I think it's important for a photographer to occasionally put themselves into fast-paced photojournalism situations without flash to keep their skills sharp. It's my belief that the faster you can adapt your camera settings to get the right exposure, the more efficient of a photographer you'll be. You won't necessarily be a better photographer, whatever your definition of that is, but if you can learn to modify your exposures on the fly without having to think about it too much, you'll have that much more brain power available to compose your shots, come up with ideas, and solve whatever other problems are coming your way.

Photographing theater is not for the faint-hearted. You need to understand how your camera works.

Theater has some pretty extreme lighting conditions. All the characters on stage will be moving quickly, coming in and out of focus, with different colored lights hitting them from every conceivable angle, the whole stage is more or less shrouded in darkness, and you can't use flash. Depending on the situation, you probably can't obnoxiously take twenty frames in a row on continuous. If you're shooting with a DSLR, it's going to be way too loud and distracting. The last thing you need is to get kicked in the head by an angry director or parent.

The whole thing is practically an obstacle course for photography, and if you're going to get some decent frames out of the whole situation, you're going to need to learn how to constantly change your manual settings.

First, know your display.

The display is going to be a key part of your navigating the darkness. Literally, it's going to be too dark for you to see your settings. Depending on what camera you're using, your options are going to be different. I shoot with a Canon 5D MK II, so I can read the settings directly in the viewfinder, on the LCD screen, and on the LCD panel. Not all of these display the same settings though, and in a panic I can't always remember what is where, so I tend to go between all three of them. I make sure that I set my camera to display the manual settings in the LCD screen (as the default is to not show them), and I make sure to know where the lightbulb button is so I can illuminate the dedicated LCD panel.

Next, know your settings.

We can break this down in terms of the exposure triangle.

ISO

Changing your ISO settings is probably the safest way to change your overall exposure, as the only real downside to going too high with it is graininess.

While the stage lighting is pretty decent, if the lights aren't white or yellow, the darker colors will force you to push up the ISO.

And don't forget that these are spotlights we're talking about. So while the spotlight might be great on whoever it's focused on at the moment, you're consistently dealing with the falloff (inverse square law), so just because the light is aimed at the stage, that doesn't mean everything in its path is going to be lit equally. Don't forget that spotlights are brightest at their centers and that the cone of light they project quickly recedes into darkness. This means you're going to have to choose ahead of time what you're trying to photograph. If it's one main actor, you probably won't have much issue. But if it's the stage in general or a large group, then you're probably going to have to make some hard decisions.

But we do have to address the issue of grain. Because the stage is so dark, even with the spotlights, you're going to need to use higher than normal ISO. If you're using one of the newer DSLRs with high ISO capability (3,200-25,600 ISO) then you're more than likely going to have to stay in a range between 1,600 and 6,400 ISO. 1600 ISO will give you relatively little grain, and 6,400 ISO will be at the edge of what's acceptable. At 6,400 you'll probably need a third-party denoising program to make the color photos acceptable (I STRONLY reccomend, Imagenomic Noiseware), or you'll need to convert the image to black and white and play off the photojournalism feeling the texture gives. If you don't have high ISO capabilities, you're going to have a really hard time photographing theater without speedlights.

I try to stay at 1600 ISO as often as possible. I raise the ISO when it's too dark in general (determined by the lighting at the moment), when things are fast moving and I need to make the shutter speed faster, or when I need a larger depth of field (for instance when I need to get a group in focus) and I have to close down my aperture.

Shutter Speed

If it were possible to stay at your camera's highest shutter-speed at all times, I would pretty much recommend it. You'd get the sharpest photos and freeze the motion of everyone on stage. You probably don't need everything at 1/8000th of a second, but the point is, considering how dark the stage is, you'll be lucky if you can squeeze out a 1/125th of a second.

If you're interested in capturing a freeze frame of choreography, you really have to push your shutter speed. This is going to push down your exposure by one or two stops. To compensate, you're going to have to alter one of the other points in your exposure triangle, either the ISO or the aperture by an equivalent number of stops. On my 5D, the stops are usually measured in thirds, so to go up or down two stops in ISO or aperture, I just need to do six clicks left or right, and I'm there. I suggest you adjust the ISO first, and then if you have to, adjust your aperture. The reason is, if you're trying to catch movement, you probably want the largest depth of field you can get, or in other words, the highest F-stop. If you shoot wide open, at say F/2.8, your depth of field is going to be extremely narrow, and yes, you'll freeze the movement, but it will be out of focus. If you want a narrow DOF for artistic reasons, know that practically speaking, it will be very difficult for you to freeze the movement AND be focused properly on the right subject AND get the right exposure.

If the stage is extremely dark, I'll occasionally risk a shot at something like 1/15th of a second. Considering how quickly people move on stage, however, it's a big risk. If it seems like people are going to be standing still for awhile, and you need more light, go ahead and slow down your shutter speed.

Aperture

In my experience, your aperture is rarely going to go above F/4.0. Maybe F/5.6 if you're lucky. I try to keep my aperture at the highest F-stop I can get away with so I can get the largest depth of field. I only go down when the lighting demands it and I have no other choice, or if my ISO is maxed out at 6,400 and I need to raise my shutter speed to capture movement. I lose DOF and risk getting movement frozen out of focus so I apply a kind of focus bracketing technique I use.

Essentially I just go to manual focus and I take a lot of consecutive shots, maybe a burst of five. With each shot I move the focus ring just a little bit. (This means you'll have to fire your camera, adjust the focus ring, and then fire again. You won't be able to do this with your camera's continuous shooting mode.) Basically, I increase the chance that I'll get something in focus, but nothing is guaranteed.

Another thing to keep in mind is the current lighting. If there are a lot of spotlights pouring on to the stage, you're in luck. You'll be able to get larger groups of people in focus. In fact, you could plan to get all your group shots during the brightest parts of the performance.

You're going to need a large depth of field to capture everyone on stage in focus, especially if you're using a 200mm lens.

Also, there will be times you want a narrow depth of field on purpose, but if it's something you try to do during a fast moving part of the show, you're going to miss out. It's something you want to try when things are a little steadier and less chaotic on stage.

Putting It All Together

Hopefully it becomes clear what the value in doing projects like this every once and awhile can be. Juggling several variables at once while observing a constantly changing dynamic on stage is something that takes time to master.

Ultimately, I try to spend most of my time thinking about what I'm trying to capture in a particular image. Who am I focusing on? How am I composing the shot? Maybe something like 10% to 20% of that is trying to figure out what my manual settings should be, and the more you work projects like this, the lower the percentage will be. The rest of the time you'll be observing your environment. Are you annoying anyone by taking photos? Is your shutter being too loud? When are they going to play music to mask the sound of my camera? I've already taken a hundred shots of the lead singer. I need to focus on the other performers. Have I taken enough shots from different angles? Do I have enough group shots, individual shots, small groups? Have I taken any shots that include the audience or the outer sides of the stage? How do I want to capture the choreography? How should I compose in my camera the formations the performers make on stage?

And of course the big question--What am I missing?

If you're stuck on the technical issues, you're going to have a hard time finding the answer.

-C