Taking picutres at school play

The IBM 407 was a tabulating machine and was "programmed" using jumper wires. It was pretty much gone by the '70s.

The 5081 was the standard 80 column punched card.

Of course BR-549 Was the phone number for Junior Sample's used car lot on Hee Haw.

I had never heard of your acronym, though I thought it might have something to do with military specification. I googled it and that's pretty funny. Kinda like the WW II Army term FUBAR. No, I was not in WW II but my dad was.

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And of course the Offy has an integral head so no head bolts to torque. Back in the day they solved the high compression head gasket failures by casting the head and block as one. It was a bottom loader.

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Wow, I learned something about the Offy.
I should have known about the punched cards. I dropped a box of those once with a 2 foot stack of cards in it. A Fortran program. Thank God they were numbered.

I should also have known about the IBM tabulating machine. My Dad introduced me to one of those when they first came out. He was the Head of the Accounting Department at Cummins Engine Co., in Columbus IN, and he was the one who introduced that machine at Cummins for doing the payroll, etc. I think I was still in High School at the time.

Actually, Cummins had the same problem with a different solution. I'm on a little shaky ground but I think I know what I'm talking about. Of course diesels are high compression engines and that was in the day before good head gaskets. Cummins solved the problem of sealing a long cylinder head by usein smaller heads - Only two cylinders per head. A six cylinder engine had three heads. That way they could space the head bolts more effeciently. They also used cylinder liners.I may be way off on that, I'm not sure.

Bob, I thought you had flunked the Curmudgeon test, but with your admissions, it looks like you have passed. Congratulations.

This is a fun conversation, but we're not helping the original poster much with his question.

That is absolutely true. Mea Culpa.

Just a thought. Even if you are told no flash ask or assume you can when they take their final bow you will not be distracting any one. Ask, but you will no distract or cause someone to loose their thought (lines) at that time.

mknabster
You got great advice from the previous posts. I think the wisest recommendation is to shot during and after the dress rehearsal and also during the actual play.
Shot some close up pictures of the characters with the (bounced) flash after the dress rehearsal, usually it is hard to get attention from the director or the actors before the play. Do not forget to switch White Balance settings for the flash and stage light.

The actual picture quality will largely depend on the quality of the luminaries in the stage and the light set up. If the school has good stage lights and some professional advice on lighting, you are done. Good luck.

Neat Image does a good job removing noise from pictures. I tested it with Superbaldguy picture. There is a free stand alone demo version that can be used with jpg images for non-commercial purposes. The school’s newspaper may qualify for it. To get the PhotoShop plug-in you must purchase the program.

I belong to a drama society and I take photographs during the dress rehearsals. By that time it should be running almost as the final production, but you should be able to get good angles and use flash without disturbing the audience.

bouce flash very much depends on the architecture of the studio or theatre. Where we rehearse there is proscenium arch, high ceiling hall and the stage has a flyloft for lifting scenery. Bounce doesn't work well if there isn't anything to bounce from. Also everything on stage - roof, walls etc., is painted matt black which deesn't help.

I had to use my Sigma flash on the hotshoe, next time I may try an off shoe cord to try and get better modelling - although it was used pretty much as a fill in flash letting the stage lights do the rest.

About bouncing, I thought on an OMNIBOUNCE or a reflecting surface attached to the flash at an angle or, with an assistant, even a reflective panel. A piece of white Styrofoam does a good job.

I thought of using the flash just to make portraits of the actors in costume.

The disadvantage of using the flash during the play is that the mood created by the stage light disappears.

The fill flash may work, but using light sources of different color temperatures may also be a problem.

i hadn't thought of a reflector. Anyway in our group there was no spare hands as I was also doing sound and lights at the same time! To get away without flash you would have to up the ISO and a faster lens. For the last play I took 400 shots which should keep all the actors pleased.

A couple of weeks before I carefully staged some shots for press publicity, where the aim was to give an indication of the play, not what actually happened, therefore the actors were much closer together to give a shot that was more likely to be used in the press. I was pleased in the local paper they gave me 2/3rds of the centre spread.

belmondo wrote:
This is a fun conversation, but we're not helping the original poster much with his question.

Point taken!

Hey SuperBaldguy, your settings that you told me you used for that play you posted, i used them that night, i got many nice shots. There was too much noise in a few, so i had to get rid of them, but Neat Image got rid of it pretty well. I took, everything in RAW, so i had a lot of flexibility. Here are 2 of some good ones i took. Thanks again guys for your advice!

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You can always shoot a couple at 400 ISO on purpose and convert them to B&W. Gives them kind of a film grain look. Noise Ninja, and Neat Image are two noise reduction programs you can try. They aren't free but will let you work with jpgs and save them but not at their highest quality. Noiseware Community Edition is another one to give a try to.