Photographing a dance recital with no flash and no tripod

Time to get friendly with my fastest lenses. We have a dance recital of my daughter next week and I just found out that you bring cameras, but no flash and no tripods will be permitted. I've heard of no tripods, but the flash seems excessive to me. Well, I guess higher ISO and shallow DOF will be the magic touch here.

Jim Photo wrote: Time to get friendly with my fastest lenses. We have a dance recital of my daughter next week and I just found out that you bring cameras, but no flash and no tripods will be permitted. I've heard of no tripods, but the flash seems excessive to me. Well, I guess higher ISO and shallow DOF will be the magic touch here.

As a performer (musician for many years) let me assure you that flashes are dangerous in a darkened room. They can blind you, keeping you from seeing anything for several seconds. That's dangerous, even moreso for a dancer. Even if flash is allowed you should never use it in that situation. It's inappropriate. It's incredibly annoying to everyone else in the auditorium, as well as others taking pictures wherein your flash may fire while someone else is snapping the shutter. Yes, I speak from experience as a photographer on that point.

You can see some of my shots at www.grhookphoto.com/event in the AMDE group. If you have any light at all you'll be working at f/4 at 1/250 s with an ISO of 2000 or more. And you'll still have to PP to brighten the images and smooth the noise. Also, if the dancers are moving a fast shutter speed is required to keep the blur to a minimum. You can also see the setting on all of my shots.

A monopod may be helpful, but a tripod won't really add anything. The problem here is speed of movement and stage lighting. Depending on where you are you can hopefully get away with not being wide open. But you'll want some fast glass. If you have a 50mm f/1.8 I suggest using it at 2 or 2.8 from farther back in the room. Wide open will expose you to CA. You don't want that.

Finally: timing is everything.

Yeap, time to get friendly with the widest aperture lens you own and high ISO!

garyrhook wrote:

Jim Photo wrote: Time to get friendly with my fastest lenses. We have a dance recital of my daughter next week and I just found out that you bring cameras, but no flash and no tripods will be permitted. I've heard of no tripods, but the flash seems excessive to me. Well, I guess higher ISO and shallow DOF will be the magic touch here.

As a performer (musician for many years) let me assure you that flashes are dangerous in a darkened room. They can blind you, keeping you from seeing anything for several seconds. That's dangerous, even moreso for a dancer. Even if flash is allowed you should never use it in that situation. It's inappropriate. It's incredibly annoying to everyone else in the auditorium, as well as others taking pictures wherein your flash may fire while someone else is snapping the shutter. Yes, I speak from experience as a photographer on that point.

You can see some of my shots at www.grhookphoto.com/event in the AMDE group. If you have any light at all you'll be working at f/4 at 1/250 s with an ISO of 2000 or more. And you'll still have to PP to brighten the images and smooth the noise. Also, if the dancers are moving a fast shutter speed is required to keep the blur to a minimum. You can also see the setting on all of my shots.

A monopod may be helpful, but a tripod won't really add anything. The problem here is speed of movement and stage lighting. Depending on where you are you can hopefully get away with not being wide open. But you'll want some fast glass. If you have a 50mm f/1.8 I suggest using it at 2 or 2.8 from farther back in the room. Wide open will expose you to CA. You don't want that.

Finally: timing is everything.

I generally shoot at f/4, 1/200 sec, ISO 2000 (sometimes as high as 3600) in Manual mode when photographing classical piano concerts. I do use a tripod, since there is relatively little movement on stage, and Dynamic Area AF can keep the artist in focus from one camera position. And, it's like wing shooting to catch good facial expressions, so you always need to anticipate.Here's an example of what you can get with this method:
www.photographytalk.com/photo-galleries/...d=5910#photoid=58092

Good post everyone. This one is a keeper I have struggled with shooting in low light indoor events myself.

If you're far away a flash won't do much other than light up the 4-5 rows in front of you.

Usually these things have pretty bright light on the stage (or artistic stage lighting) so adding flash light will just ruin the mood.

Good suggestions from Gary and John, and I agree the timing can make a difference. If you can find out when and where she'll be onstage you can be ready at the right times. It can help to anticipate where she'll go next, which direction she'll be moving across, etc.

Sometimes dealing with low light and movement I found it can help to watch for a pause, sometimes before turning to move a different direction, to get a shot then. I try to watch for when someone will be under a light instead of in a darker corner or area.