Stage Photography

Stage Photography is photographing everything to anything that happens when the curtains are lifted and the action begins. It could be beautiful voluptuous figure dancing to classical beats or herds of insane people banging their heads to earsplitting music, from classic music or instrument to people dancing to Bollywood numbers or from psychedelic actors enacting plays to eminent personalities sharing their wisdom. Its about capturing that one special moment that spreads the brilliance  of the artist outside the walls of the theatre and immortalizing their talent.

Therefore stage photographers bear the responsibility to bring out the beauty of the performing artist and showcase it to the whole world so that they get the due appreciation of their prowess. I have seen many people trying to capture the special moment on stage but very few succeed rarely. Getting one good photograph is not enough but to obtain good shots continually is what that counts.

Two challenges that everyone faces during stage clicking is exposure and framing. Since both the light conditions and the subject keep changing continuously one needs to be be quick in composing shots and anticipating exposure settings. To tackle light conditions one can see the rehearsals but we hardly ever get the time for that. Some of the things that I keep in my mind while clicking stage performances are as follows:

1: Always click in RAW. Since the changing light conditions might give underexposed shots due to dim lighting increasing brightness would be easier if clicked in RAW.

2: Keep a high ISO : 800.

3: If a strong spotlight is on the subject then an ISO of 400 is sufficient in many cases.

4: Keep the aperture minimum as possible and just the right shutter speed to capture the moment. Little motion blur sometimes add a nice effect.

5: Always look for the pauses in dances and other performances. Don’t waste your energy while clicking while the subject is moving it is not going to come good.

6: I never use flash for stage photography cause they unnecessarily illuminate the dark background and detach attention from the subject. Moreover they distract and blind the artist.

7: When there is a strong lighting use a higher aperture instead of shutter speed. It will add sharpness and increase the contrast reproducing better colours.

8: Don’t take shots from just one position. Keep changing your vantage point.

9: Don’t click when there is a strong fill light. The photograph is not going to come out good. Rather enjoy the show for that period.

10: Try taking some shots from the back with the artist and lights in the frame. If lights highlight the subject then even more better.

11: Try out some blurs. They come out interesting.

12: It is not sufficient to just the exposure right and click the subject but composition matters. One hardly gets anytime for composing. Practice and little imagination and foresight are the only instruments which will help you.

Hope I was helpful here…