Newbie Help Required

[Coops61]

Hello Everyone,

My first post having been an avivd reader of this great forum for the last month or so:)

I am new to DSLR photography but with your help i have purchased what i think is a reasonable set-up for me to get started with.

I run a Amateur Theatre Company and my aim is to take photos of our Musical stage productions and Portrait shots for the Programmes and publicity material.

Based upon the great treads & feedback on this site i have purchased (all second hand from ebay) a 300d with Grip, 2x420ex + 1x550ex Lastolite Backdrop, 50mm MkII f1.8 , 24-85mm F3.5 -4.5 USM (i have the 18-55mm kit lens still) plus i have just purchased a 70-200mm f4 L.

This is where i could do with some help I bid on 2 - 70-200mm L's and won them both "Whoops" :oops: -- Does anyone have any thoughts on how i choose which one to keep - anything i should look for etc -- any thoughts would be very welcome, plus any comments on whether i have the correct type of kit so far for the type of material i wish to shoot.

Thanks in advance and thanks for so much great experience found on this forum :D

[tim]

That's pretty damn good to start with, probably more than you need! You could've gotten away with just the 50mm F1.8! The F4 L probably won't help you much, theatre is usually too dark in my experience.

Don't know how to choose the 2.8L sorry, i'm looking for an IS one though, so if you have a spare one of those let me know!

[DaveG]

Hello Everyone,

My first post having been an avivd reader of this great forum for the last month or so:)

I am new to DSLR photography but with your help i have purchased what i think is a reasonable set-up for me to get started with.

I run a Amateur Theatre Company and my aim is to take photos of our Musical stage productions and Portrait shots for the Programmes and publicity material.

Based upon the great treads & feedback on this site i have purchased (all second hand from ebay) a 300d with Grip, 2x420ex + 1x550ex Lastolite Backdrop, 50mm MkII f1.8 , 24-85mm F3.5 -4.5 USM (i have the 18-55mm kit lens still) plus i have just purchased a 70-200mm f4 L.

This is where i could do with some help I bid on 2 - 70-200mm L's and won them both "Whoops" :oops: -- Does anyone have any thoughts on how i choose which one to keep - anything i should look for etc -- any thoughts would be very welcome, plus any comments on whether i have the correct type of kit so far for the type of material i wish to shoot.

Thanks in advance and thanks for so much great experience found on this forum :D


I'm sure that your gear is enough to do the job. I used to shoot a lot of amateur stage productions for promo purposes when I worked for a daily newspaper so here are a few tips.

First off what works on the stage and in photos are two different things. On stage the actors maybe five meters apart and it works well. But that's way too far for a photo. My first bit of direction is to move the actors closer together. This also has the added benefit of hearing the amateur director - who is doing this for the POWER - bleat "That's not in the play."

Actors are trained to listen. One speaks, one listens. Back and forth. Nice on stage, sucks in a picture. I'd actually get the actors to say their lines on top of each other. Even though they knew what was going on it raised the tension since no one likes being interruped. Tension is good.

"That's not in the play."

I'd get them to turn on ALL of their stage lighting. I preferred to work with stage lighting rather than flash, but I needed all of it.

"That's not in the play."

When two actors - or people for that matter - talk, they look at each other. I was faced with the problem of shooting profiles or backs of heads. What I would do is have the near actor turn away from the far actor and both are looking in the direction (not necessarily into) the camera. That way I can see faces.

"That's not in the play."

Yeah but it's in the newspaper.

[Coops61]

Thanks that's really great feedback David -- and the good news is my other half is the Director and she shouts at me all day any how so no change there then;)

[Andy_T]

This is where i could do with some help I bid on 2 - 70-200mm L's and won them both "Whoops" :oops: -- Does anyone have any thoughts on how i choose which one to keep - anything i should look for etc --

No problem, let me help you!

Just send both of them to me, I test them extensively, send you back the better one and take care of environmentally safe disposal for the other one (like in my camera bag) :lol:

Other than taking my generous offer, you might also take a look at this thread (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=58493&highlight=test).

Best regards,
Andy