Flash o high ISO?

[marimagen]

Hi,
I'm supposed to take pictures at a ballet show, and I'm not sure if I should work in high ISO or with a flash. I have a Nikon D700 and no decent flash to speak of. I you think I'd get better results with a flash, can you tell me which one(s) could do the trick. I know Nikon units are great but I'm not sure which one I should get. Thanks in advance, Marie

[fdisilvestro]

IMHO, you should go for the high ISO approach. The flash might be not allowed at a ballet show.

Without flash you will capture the atmosphere and light of the show, which is usually part of the choreography. Besides, the Nikon D700 is a good high ISO performer.

[Ken Bennett]

This is important: if you are shooting the actual show, don't use a flash. Ever. But try to avoid this by shooting the final dress rehearsal.

In general, theatre and dance photography is done with the show lighting, which has been created by a lighting designer for that show. Most venues actually have pretty good light on the stage -- those spotlights can be bright -- allowing handheld shooting at ISO 1600 or 3200 with f/2.8 lenses at reasonable shutter speeds (1/250 or better.) Sometimes they go for a dark and moody look, which wreaks havoc with still photography, like our recent production of Grapes of Wrath in which much of the show was shot at ISO 6400 at shutter speeds of 1/30 or worse. Got some good stuff, but had to work for it.

The D700 can provide excellent photos at high ISO settings. The very dark background and bright spotlights will fool your meter, causing your camera to overexpose, so shoot wide open, in manual mode, and check your photos and your histogram often, and adjust your settings as needed.

Good luck. Theatre and dance is fun to shoot but can be challenging.

[Ellis Vener]

What  are the rules are for the performance?  If it is a school you can probably get away with using flash if they allow it. But also think about how distracting it will be for the kids and other parents. If it ist allowed or you just want be courteous: wide open with a fast (ƒ/2.8 or larger aperture) lens and a high ISO.

If it is a professional performance then no flash at all.

[Rob C]

The D700 will expose well in light where you didn't think you should even be trying. Horse's mouth.

Flash, unless you can position several units to use at once, will never give you what you want - perhaps in a smallish room and well bounced but direct should deservedly get you hanged. Sometimes, no image is better than bad image.

Rob C

[marimagen]

Great, thank you all, so high ISO it'll be! Normally I'll be able to "pratice" at the dressed rehearsal. This ballet is going to be quite special, it'll be a "prehispanic dance show" held at the Ethnology museum in Barcelona. I can hardly wait! Marie

[Rob C]

Great, thank you all, so high ISO it'll be! Normally I'll be able to "pratice" at the dressed rehearsal. This ballet is going to be quite special, it'll be a "prehispanic dance show" held at the Ethnology museum in Barcelona. I can hardly wait! Marie

A technique that's worked well for me with the D700 and poor light is to go onto Auto ISO. Pick f2 or f2.8 and set your shutter at around 1/200th of a sec. and you'd be surprised how well the Auto ISO works. I keep the exposure meter set on Matrix all the time, and what I find is that, as somebody else reported, there's a tendency towards over-exposure rather than under- using this automatic setup. So, you do have a sort of safety blanket built-in. All the indoor music shots in my website were done that way, with 50mm, 135mm and 180mm optics. I have so much confidence in the system that I don't even bother to chimp anymore.

http://www.roma57.com/the-biscuit-tin.html

¡Buena suerte!

Rob Campbell

[Jonathan Ratzlaff]

I am not sure how well autoexposure works with high contrast stage lighting.  This was manual exposure 1600 exposure spot metring +1 on spotlight.  Taken a long time ago with a fuji s2; a flash would spoil the mood and the exposure.

[LKaven]

Like Rob, I use auto ISO with f/2-2.8 and 1/200th sec with the matrix meter.  I find in the theater I need to use -1 to -1.5 stops of negative exposure compensation to avoid blowing out highlights caused by the reflections from the par lights.  With an up-to-date camera, the benefits of using auto-ISO are many and the penalties few.  On the D3s at high ISO settings, if the matrix meter calls for ISO1600 and the scene really needs ISO3200, you can add a stop of digital gain after the fact with no perceptible penalty and you gain some highlight protection in the process. 

[marimagen]

Auto ISO sounds great, I hadn't thought about it. I'll see during the rehearsal if 1/200th is fast enough to freeze the action. Thank you guys for all the tips. Marie

[stever]

depending on the action, 1/100 may be fine.  take bursts of at least 3 images on high drive speed to a) capture the most dynamic positions, and b) get one sharp image when motion slows or pauses.  sometimes slower can be used for intentional blur, but don't recommend this without practice

assume you're shooting RAW so you can recover some highlights and pull up shadows if necessary

[Rob C]

depending on the action, 1/100 may be fine.  take bursts of at least 3 images on high drive speed to a) capture the most dynamic positions, and b) get one sharp image when motion slows or pauses.  sometimes slower can be used for intentional blur, but don't recommend this without practice

assume you're shooting RAW so you can recover some highlights and pull up shadows if necessary

[/b]



God yes, absolutely! I never use anything else.

Rob C

[marimagen]

I always use RAW. It gives me total freedom for post prod work. Thanks, Marie

[haring]

High ISO! Get a fast lens and you will be fine. I did it in the past with a similar camera and the photos came out nice!

[LKaven]

Addendum, in case neither Rob nor I made it clear -- we were talking about using auto-ISO in M-anual mode. 

[haring]

Why do you use auto ISO? I want to learn something...

[Ken Bennett]

I don't, but the rationale is this: in Manual mode, you can set a shutter speed that is fast enough to stop the action, and the best aperture for the situation, and the camera will adjust the ISO to match the actual light levels as they change. Works pretty well on some cameras.

[LKaven]

Why do you use auto ISO? I want to learn something...

In a performance situation, with moving subjects and fast-changing light conditions, the parameters of exposure itself are mostly decided.  You need about 1/200th of a second, but you can sometimes get away with 1/160th or 1/125th or less for some scenes.  With those shutter speeds, you need to have an aperture in the range of f/2.8 or wider to get a usable exposure in the situations you encounter.  A "usable" exposure is one that is usable after the necessary gain is applied.  In short, you have already decided how much "exposure" you can afford.  All that is left for you to vary is the gain. 

On a camera like the D3/D700, the read noise is optimal above ISO1600 to the extent that there is no practical penalty if the camera is off by a stop or so in its ISO selection.  You will get nearly 100% "usable" images this way, or so I've found.   

I strongly recommend that one set the maximum auto-ISO setting for ISO6400 on the D3/D700 and ISO12800 on the D3s.  The "HI" modes involve the camera throwing away from 1-3  bits (with digital-only gain) that you don't want it to throw away.  Best to decide for yourself in post how much gain to apply.