In the meantime, I do have pictures from a Christmas musical/play from our church last Saturday. I was the "designated" photographer and had my space up and front and center. Picture this...center aisle bull-pen. The director, the videographer, and I were holed up in the bull-pen. I thought I would be able to "walk up and down" the bull-pen to get some close-ups and some further back wide-angle shots. Well...I was able to get a lot of close-ups. I somehow got stuck in the front as the videographer and the director moved their seats and equipment closer to the center aisle. I was blocked in. Not a bad thing. I had to make do with the 2'x2' area and the tiny kindergarten chair as my seat (so my head wasn't blocking the video camera). It was all in fun.
I only had time to attend the last quick dress rehearsal they had for that week and took practice pictures (lights and settings). I didn't have the whole program in my head and ended up being surprised during the actual program.
When the lights were dimmed, my trusty D7k and my gut instincts took over.
To my immediate right, the kids popped up and stood in their chairs and sang:
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| These cute kids were standing on their tiny chairs: angels, wise men and women, & shepherds 32mm, f4.0, 1/125, ISO 2200 |
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| Getting closer... 44mm, f4.5, 1/125, ISO 2200 |
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| ...and closer 120mm, f5.3, 1/80, ISO 3200 |
The actual play took place over towards the center and to my right:
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| 26mm, f3.8, 1/125, ISO 3200 |
This was a very cute moment during the musical:
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| 18mm, f3.5, 1/50, ISO 3200 |
Check out the shadow in the background:
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| 22mm, f3.8, 1/60, ISO 3200 |
Of course, the kids enjoyed the spotlight:
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| 18mm, f3.5, 1/100, ISO 3200 |
I took a picture of the poster the night before:
The director with his flashlight (rehearsals):
A beautiful performance during rehearsals:
I didn't have too much difficulty with the lighting and getting the shots I wanted. I left my camera on P-mode. My exposure was set to 0 (zero). Normally I would bump the exposure up or down slightly, but the spotlights were bright enough to leave it at 0. The metering mode I use mostly is center-weighted average. I also primarily use single focus point which allows me to move the focus point around before taking a picture.
I've tried using the multiple focus points (e.g. d9, d21, d39, and auto) and had frustrating results. I stick with single (e.g. s) point and I can control where the lens should focus.
Even though I had my external SB-600 flash with me, I did not have to use it at all.
I took 200+ pictures during the musical/play and had only a handful that were not useable. Not bad, huh?
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| 24mm, f3.8, 1/80, ISO 3200 |
And after the musical/play, the cast members posed for me:
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| 18mm, f3.5, 1/125, ISO 2800 |
The director with his flashlight (rehearsals):
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| Lights out! 40mm, f4.5, 1/125, ISO 560 |
A beautiful performance during rehearsals:
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| 18mm, f3.5, 1/40, ISO 3200 |
I didn't have too much difficulty with the lighting and getting the shots I wanted. I left my camera on P-mode. My exposure was set to 0 (zero). Normally I would bump the exposure up or down slightly, but the spotlights were bright enough to leave it at 0. The metering mode I use mostly is center-weighted average. I also primarily use single focus point which allows me to move the focus point around before taking a picture.
I've tried using the multiple focus points (e.g. d9, d21, d39, and auto) and had frustrating results. I stick with single (e.g. s) point and I can control where the lens should focus.
Even though I had my external SB-600 flash with me, I did not have to use it at all.
I took 200+ pictures during the musical/play and had only a handful that were not useable. Not bad, huh?
3 comments:
Thank you for sharing this experience and the resulting photos. Interesting that you resort to single focus point (which I use on my compact zoom - I'm not sure if it has multiple option besides auto).
I love that you chose not to use a flash. I did likewise at a Watoto concert from my seat (August 13 post), felt much better than using a distracting flash which wouldn't have reached the subjects anyway.
My old D40 DSLR (which I still have) has only 3 auto focus points. I had to learn to use the 3 points to focus with. My D7k has a total of 39 focus points. Mind-boggling for me...especially when I had the focus set to auto (e.g. d39 or d21) and I had no idea where the camera/lens was focusing on. Everything lit up on the viewfinder. LOL!!!
Personally, I feel flash is harder to control in certain scenarios. For concerts and flash, I always got brightly lit shots of the back of people's heads. ;)
For me, to get that Kodak moment...I don't have a lot of time to fiddle with the camera adjustments and to keep looking at the LCD display. I resort of my standard (familiar) settings and tweak it when needed.
Great photos!
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