Let's see your THEATRE photos

[bobpal]

I've been shooting more and more theatre since moving to Ashland, Oregon, which is home to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and a number of smaller professional theaters. Here's a couple to get started.

Oregon Shakesphere Festival "Daedalus Variety Show".

Oregon Shakesphere Festival "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" play reading

Rogue Theatre Company "Heisenberg"

Rogue Theatre Company "Chipati"

 

[Anton Largiader]

For me it's high school as usual. One-acts. I drove one of our teams a few weeks ago and got this great shot during their performance of "This girl laughs, this girl cries and this girl does nothing". The pose of the girl front center immediately made me think of Christina's World.


This one had nice symmetry to it. I didn't know the play at all before I saw it so I was just shooting what I saw, but the micro-scenes were really nice.


They won that round (well, didn't get eliminated) and I drove them again last Saturday to the next round but that was a lot tougher: eight schools and only one team moved on to states. It was not our team.

 

[Lubos-PM]

V září 2014 jsem měl možnost fotografovat generální zkoušku opery Antonína Dvořáka Rusalka. Otáčivé hlediště pod širým nebem v zámeckém parku v Českém Krumlově.
Canon 5D MkIII + EF70-200mm f/4L IS USM

 

[Lubos-PM]

Cyrano performed by an amateur ensemble in the courtyard of the castle in Jindřichův Hradec, 2019. Every year they perform only two performances - the premiere on Friday and the opening night on Saturday. Of course, every year a different play.

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV + EF70-200mm f/4L IS USM

 

[bobpal]

Nice work guys.

 

[Lubos-PM]

Jindřichův Hradec 2016 - Jeppe on the Hill

 

[Lubos-PM]

Jindřichův Hradec 2017 - Carlo Goldoni The Liar

 

[bobpal]

Southern Oregon University OLLI play.

 

[Lubos-PM]

Jindřichův Hradec 2018 - Václav Štech Třetí zvonění (The third ringing)

 

[Anton Largiader]

I struggle with metering a bit. For these one-act competitions, the sets are minimal (they only have a few minutes to set up) and the background is generally black unless there are large flats. Any kind of metering can easily overrepresent the BG and lead to blown highlights. I should have enabled blinkies beforehand; in some cases I could get my metering right on the teams performing before ours.

The other issue is that the kids are performing on an unfamiliar stage, and the stage lights aren't necessarily where they want them. They mark out where they want to be with tape, but sometimes they end up just in front of the spot, or just in back of it, and it makes a huge difference. These are all stationary lights; there generally are not manned spotlights in these theaters or maybe there is one for special effects.

 

[bobpal]

I experience many of the same issues, Even in semi-pro theaters. The lights can be very uneven and just one step away from the sweet spot is bad for photography and may be a stop or more different than other actors on the stage. I am shooting with a Canon R6II and having the actual picture in the viewfinder helps a lot. I put exposure comp on the lens ring and am constantly changing the setting. Usually I am at 1/200 at f/2.8 with the ISO on auto. Sometimes I use a monopod to insure that the camera is stable when I zoom to 200mm at that shutter speed. It seems to help.

 

[Shybull]

Nutcracker. 2022