Re: [Leica] Summarex question - now theatre shooting (not Ted's kind tho)

["Roland Smith" <roland@dnai.com>]

Hello Simon:

I am considering taking pictures of stage productions as another application
of available light photography and a learning experience.   I had nothing
specific in mind.

I'll let you know my results when they occur.

Roland Smith
- ----- Original Message -----
From: Simon Pulman-Jones <spulmanjones@lbs.ac.uk>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2000 8:12 AM
Subject: RE: [Leica] Summarex question - now theatre shooting (not Ted's
kind tho)


> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>-----Original Message-----
> From: Roland Smith [SMTP:roland@dnai.com]
> Sent: 06 January 2000 14:36
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Summarex question
>
> I have been curious about theater shots and have not been sure where
> to start with 3200 film.   What film speed and exposure did you
use?<<<<<<<
>
>
> Roland,
>
> My experience of shooting theatre shows is as an amateur - as a proud
> Gypsy-like "theatrical mother" (sing out Louise!) taking pictures of my
> wife on stage - so I'm care-free and trial and error rather than
> professional.
>
> I was using Fujicolor Press 800, shooting at f 1.5 and 2 at between 125th
> and 500th.  I find that my main problem is overexposure due to
> underestimating the brightness of the spot-lit areas - so light levels are
> less of a problem than you might think - in my experience, only the
> gloomiest of productions would need 3200 iso film.  Grain on 10x8's was no
> problem at all with the Fuji 800.  The show that I was shooting was a
>  Christmas pantomime - I'm not sure whether these shows exist much outside
> Britain - they are a combination of comic variety show and fairy tale -
> aimed at both adults and children, with a mixture of slapstick and
> sometimes very adult humour.  There was a lot of dancing and dashing
> around, which is why I went with the 800 iso film to allow shutter speeds
> fast enough to stop movement - otherwise I would have preferred a slower
> tungsten balanced film - though the colour of the lighting was so variable
> that I'm not sure how much point there would have been in trying to
balance
> for it in camera.  I would have thought that you would be fine with medium
> speed b&w - which should mean far higher quality than the 3200.
>
> FWIW I found that the 85mm focal length was ideal from about fifty feet -
> covering an area just over half the width of a medium sized theatre stage,
> with adequate depth of field even at f 1.5 and 2, allowing shots of pairs
> or groups of characters interacting and still giving a large enough image
> of single characters for cropping and enlarging.  An 80 - 200 zoom would
be
> wonderful - but with a maximum aperture of 2.8 the film speed/quality
> trade-off starts to look very different, especially with the shutter
speeds
> needed at the longer ends - you're probably better off cropping from a
> larger, higher quality image.
>
> What sort of theatre work are you thinking of?  Best of luck.  I'd be very
> interested to hear from anyone else with experience of getting the best
out
> of theatre shooting - especially given that it's work to which Leica M's
> are so well suited.
>
> Simon.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>