I can dance just like the big girls! See? (cuteness warning)

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Well done! Were you part of the audience when you shot these or did you have dispensation to get close? The lighting is excellent. Dennis

Good work as always Curtis
Low light dance rectials is what got me into DSLRs (my daughters ballet) and I hope to one day be able to capture her with quality such as this. The exposures are all around great, and cute to boot

wow, yeah, the exposure on these is fantastic! what lense did you use, and on what settings?

Thanks, everyone!

Becky and I sort of specialize in this kind of work. Community theatre and dance recitals. We shoot the dress rehearsals and sell CDs with all the images we choose to process. I use a 20D w/ Sigma 70-200. and Becky uses a 30D w/ Tamron 28-75.

The strategy I've been using with the 70-200 is actually a trick I learned from POTN member Rutt who is known for his flippin' awesome ballet photography. I use Tv mode at 1/400 with Safety Shift enabled. When the light isn't enough with the lens wide open, the camera reverts to Av mode and slows down the shutter. Normally I use ISO 3200. The hard part is getting the exposure right with all that black. You need a serious dose of -EC or you'll blow out every shot beyond repair.

Becky caught a lot of great shots in this recital too. Maybe she'll post a few.

number six is fabulous!!!... If I were that little ones momma i'd pay whatever you asked for it!!..

The telephoto zooms are really great for dancing. I can't wait to use my 70-200 for my son's concert. But the little girls are so cute, Curtis. You did a great job. All are great, and yes, #6 is my favorite. Her expression, the angle, everything, just perfect.

Thanks, Sari & Suzie.

Cute as they are, it was tough shooting these little ones because they were always looking sideways (witness #1, #3 and #6). Their instructor was in the wings coaching, and they were either looking at her, or at each other, trying to figure out what to do next! It was hilarious, but they sure had fun!

Cute, Cute, Cute!

Awesome work Curtis.

I like the kids ones better than the adults, but not just for the cuteness factor... i think they just work better.

Rob

Awesome series Curtis. My daughter dances and I've never thought of shooting the rehearsels. I've drug the camera along to the shows, but you get dirty looks snapping during the music.

The last shot at ISO 3200 is superb. Great action capture! Thanks very much for sharing these

Curtis, great shots. I am really impressed with the quality of the pictures at ISO 3200. With the black outfits and curtains I would have expected to see a lot more noise. Did you run the pictures through a noise reduction program, or was this just the standard noise reduction in Lightroom?

In any case, you have some excellent shots here. Thanks for sharing.

Usually black uniforms and backgrounds don't show a lot of visible noise, and the really bright areas generally aren't a problem either. It's the in-between stuff like faces, especially shadow areas, that can look bad.

I batch process everything through Noise Ninja which does a pretty nice job. Then I downsize everything to 1800x1200 pixels which gets rid of any remaining noise. Then I sharpen and burn the images to CD.

Curtis N wrote in post #3310186
The strategy I've been using with the 70-200 is actually a trick I learned from POTN member Rutt who is known for his flippin' awesome ballet photography. I use Tv mode at 1/400 with Safety Shift enabled. When the light isn't enough with the lens wide open, the camera reverts to Av mode and slows down the shutter. Normally I use ISO 3200. The hard part is getting the exposure right with all that black. You need a serious dose of -EC or you'll blow out every shot beyond repair.

nice work curtis. they turned out great with 3200. did you use a ton of NR? i would also love to hear more about this saftey shift.

thelightofsound wrote in post #3315694
did you use a ton of NR?

Noise Ninja at default settings. Downsizing is really the best noise killer so you'll not see much in a 600x400 image.

It's a custom function on the 20D, 30D and higher end cameras, but not on the Rebel series. Basically it will override your chosen aperture (in Av mode) or shutter speed (in Tv mode) if it has to.

If your camera has this function, turn it on. Leave it on. Forever. There's no downside to it.

Here's a couple examples of how it works. Suppose you're shooting sports or dance or something indoors in variable low light conditions. Your ISO is maxed out at 3200 and you set your shutter speed at 1/400 in Tv mode to stop the action. This is fine if you have enough light, but if it's too dark with your lens wide open, you'll get underexposed shots. Safety shift will slow down the shutter speed to get proper exposure.

Now you could just use Av mode with the lens wide open. But if the light gets bright enough to get the shutter speed faster than 1/400, that extra shutter speed won't do you any good. Using Tv mode at an appropriate shutter speed can allow the lens to stop down a bit, for better sharpness and DOF.

Another reason to enable safety shift is for outdoor flash. Suppose you're in Av mode shooting out in the sun. The flash will limit the shutter speed to 1/250 which might cause overexposure. Safety shift will stop down the aperture when this happens, preventing blowouts.