 | Shoot a bunch - the main advantage with digital is that you can
shoot a bunch of pictures and clean them clean up later. Often, I'll shoot
10-20 pictures per act, and delete all but a handful. You'll be surprised at
how many interesting shots you'll get when you don't have to worry about
film costs! |
| Resolution - shooting at the camera's highest resolution
facilitates "cropping" of final photos. For instance, if you crop
the outer 50% of the area of a digital photo, you still have enough pixels
left in the remaining picture to produce a good print or web picture. |
| Test shots - When my kids are getting ready to go onstage, I'll run
a few test shots on the "previous act" and review them so that I
know my camera settings are good. |
| Shutter delay anticipation - My camera takes some time to actually
expose the photo (about 0.2 seconds), which is more than enough time to miss
that great kick or leap. So you'll need to develop a sense of timing to know
when to anticipate the move and fire off the shutter early. Some cameras
actually capture pictures before you press the shutter, and you can go
"back in time" and retrieve the ones that happened earlier. |
| Digital Zoom - Remember that digital zoom is not a "real
zoom" - that is, you are not optically enlarging the image. Digital
zoom typically uses the center ½ or 1/3 of the image and discards the rest,
so the effect is the same as taking a normal picture and cropping and
enlarging the center. There will be fewer pixels, and lower photo resolution
in a digitally zoomed image. |
| Metering - Many digital cameras have different autofocus and/or
autoexposure metering settings. Typical choices are: center, spot, multiple
zone. Often, I find that center or spot metering produces a better image,
especially if the dancers are well lit and the background is dark. |
| Focus - Many digital cameras have trouble autofocusing in dim
light. If you are far enough away, you may be able to get away with setting
your camera at "infinity", or choosing the "landscape"
mode, which often sets the focus at infinity. Or, if your camera
supports manual focus, estimate the distance to the stage and set it
yourself. |
| White Balance - You may want to choose something other than
"automatic" for white balance; otherwise, the costumes and flesh
tones may be different on film. This is one area that I check during the
"test shots". |
| Sensitivity - Some digital cameras can operate at different
sensitivity levels - similar to putting different ISO rated film in a
traditional camera. Using the "high sensitivity" or higher ISO
equivalent setting will provide for more light-gathering capability. The
cleanliness of the exposed photo may be less, owing to noise from the
picture element. |
| Camera Mode - Many cameras will run in fully automatic mode, but
you may want to experiment with the various modes to give you the best
control. For example, my camera shoots the best competition photos set on
1/80 sec Shutter Priority mode, auto exposure, high sensitivity, high
contrast, infinite focus, no flash. |
| Saturation - This setting can produce deeper colors, a problem
which often occurs in dim light. Try various settings on your camera for the
best results. |
