Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/12/11

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Film for school play
From: Loh Kar Wai Wesley <wesley@memphiswest.com>
Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2000 06:09:35 +0800

Hello Simon,

> I will be photographing the school play for our local school which will be
> held in an assembly hall.  I have been told that there will be no light
> apart from the stage spotlights, which I assume will be halogen.

The stage lights are unlikely to be halogen, more like tungsten. Some of the
photo labs have newer digital machines (eg Fuji epix) which will help in
color correction, Fuji film (eg Superias, etc) with the fourth layer are
especially easy to correct.

> Can anyone share their experience of working in such lighting with regard to
> the best type of film.  I will probably take an ISO800 film (colour neg)
> with my M6, the 35 f/2, 50mm f/2 and Noctilux.  I expect to be no less than
> thirty feet from the stage and possibly further back than that.  I have a

800 film will fine for most plays. However, it would help if you can go for
some of the practises so that you can anticipate the lighting and the
sequence of the play. Also, try to shoot during the dress rehearsal since
it's more likely you can move around more freely.

There are times when I have to go to the edge of the stage for tight
character shots, even with a 70-200 f/2.8, so you might want to borrow a 90
f/2 or f/2.8 for those shots. Sometimes, you'd be surprised how brightly lit
the stage is, depending from play to play. It's highly likely you'll be
working with speeds of 1/30 to 1/125 even at f/2.8.

Have fun,
Wesley

Memphis West Pictures (Singapore)
http://www.memphiswest.com
m65.9762.0429 p65.9522.7170
f65.456.6896