1st Time Shooting Live Dance Performance

[Bubbleyuno]

Hello! This is my first post and I thought I would start here. In a couple of weeks I will be shooting a friend's dance performance (for fun/practice). I am assuming it will be very dark and I am thinking about possibly renting a zoom lens. What lenses are recomended for this sort of situation. Is it safe to assume that people who shoot performances for a living shoot on a tripod with a flash? I need all the advice I can get! I'd like to be able to pull this off to add this to my portfolio! THANKS!!!!

[BOUNCINGNRG]

Welcome to POTN.
Have a read of this threade Dwight started, loads of stuff here.
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=226809
Main things are don't use a flash, use a high iso and if your going to rent a lens i'd rent a prime with a large appature, depending on how far you are away from the stage a 85 1.8 or 50 1.4 would be great. Using these with a high iso you wont need a tripod.

[tfd888]

As said above, flash is a big NO for dance since it can wash out a lot of the ambient lighting and can be quite distracting for the dancers.

I personally use and love the 70-200 IS L 2.8 for dance wide open at 2.8 with an ISO ranging from 1250-1600. With that setup I usually get shutter speeds ranging from 1/60 - 1/250 depending on the lighting but usually they are around the 1/100 area or lower. Be sure to shoot RAW, for dance and theater it's a must.

I usually handhold as I am switching back and forth between the wings backstage and the audience during a dress rehearsal but for the show I am in the wings the whole time (where I shoot they don't want the shutter going off and disturbing the audience during the show) so you can only use a mono pod realistically in there as it can get a little tight with dancers going back and forth from the stage.

Hope this helps.

[Bubbleyuno]

Great! Thanks for all the info! That helps me out very much! I know everyone has different opinons about this but I will be shooting this with my Canon XS and I'm not sure if this is a situation where my camera might be limiting me. Any thoughts on this? Also, would a 70-200mm f/4 L do the trick for this as well (its cheaper)? I'd appreciate any advice you have! Thanks again!

[tfd888]

In my opinion I would say yes the XS would be limiting you. The focusing in lowlight is not the greatest on the XS and the FPS and buffer are quite low (I think the raw buffer is only 5 images with an fps of 1.5). You can still get good shots if you use it wisely, it's just going to be much more difficult. See if you could get your hands on a 30D or 40D, they would perform significantly better.

I would strongly recommend the F2.8 IS version of the 70-200 L over the F4 version as you need all the light you can get to be able to get a reasonable shutter speed and even F2.8 isn't wide enough at times.

Hope this helps.

[Bubbleyuno]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I really appreciate it. Aside from this dimly lit situation, are there other limitations that I will run into with using my XS? I often hear the saying "It's the photographer who makes the picture, not the camrea." Can you have an XS and take "professional" photographs?

[René Damkot]

Can you have an XS and take "professional" photographs?

Certainly! Seen it more then once.

But it's quite possible that a different camera would have made it easier (because of better / faster AF, higher fps, different user interface, whatever)

I prefer to be the limiting factor of the equipment, not the other way around ;)