Stage Lighting Setting For EX-1

J

joe4176

New member
I'm going to be shooting a ballet with the EX-1 and was wondering if anyone could recommend some good settings.

It's going to be on a proscenium stage. The auditorium will be dark and the stage lights will change colors and intensity throughout the program.

The dancers will also be running and jumping across the stage so shutter angle may be an issue too. I'll also be zooming in so I'll lose some f-stop on the longer lens.

I also may crank it up to 60 fps during a few dance sections.

I'll be pretty close to the stage on a tripod.

Would love to hear any suggestions.
 
If you're the only camera, I would recommend shooting from the rear of the auditorium (if it's not too big), or the front of the balcony, or next to the sound board. This will allow you to get the whole stage in the shot as well as some medium closeups. Also, you don't have to worry about changing the focus all the time. And finally, you only have to pan through smaller angles as the dancers cross the stage (ie no whip pans). If you have 2 cameras, then you can put one close to the stage.

Also, I would recommend keeping the same settings throughout the show. If you think you'll need 60 fps sometimes, then shoot 60fps the whole time. Choose one white balance and stick with it (usually ~6000k works well). This will make it easier to edit.
 
Stage lights are usually 2800k to 3200k, so if you set it to the indoor white balance preset (3200k) it will look good.
 
I've found that getting the Light Techie to give me their "whitest" scene lighting & doing a white balance on a foam board has worked well for me, and seldom required much correction in post. I agree with Sumfin about shooting from further back near the sound board; it simplifies your shoot.
 
Howdy...

Stage lights are tough becuase they are often colored, resulting in a lower temperature (ie. around 2600K), but if a spotlight is used, it's often daylight balanced (over 5K).

I shot a stage production this week with 2 EX1s, and set the temperature at 4400, which was a reasonable balance between the two, but it's tough if they're using stage and spot lights...

Best,

Ben
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The thing to keep in mind is to not "chase" the color. If the lighting designer intended for the scene to be red, then it should be red; if blue, then it should be blue, etc. Doing a manual WB with just the whites on puts the camera about where I need it to be. After that, the colors portray fairly accurately. All the hot spots are another matter, though... Stage productions can be a real pain!
 
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