EXPOSING DANCE PHOTOS IN AUDITORIUM

Dance itself is a great subject, on which lots have been written....But here I wish to convey my co-photographers some code of conduct and regarding exposure in this sort of photography, where the dancer is giving his/her performance and the auditorium is full of the admirers of this art form.

Some expert said that why the photographers shouldn't have the code of conduct of their own?..there is nothing more annoying that the photographer attending a function or performance disturbing everyone by cutting across their view and firing his flash in their faces.

For an example during a dance recital, the noted Bharat Natyam dancer Bala Saraswati was so annoyed with a photographer's flash that she stopped dancing and refused to proceed till the photographer was thrown out of the auditorium.....Here the clear answer wud be to do away with the flash completely and increasing the ISO of ur camera to 400 to 800.Thus u can standardise ur technique for getting consistently good results. And with the onset of the DCAMs it has become more easy than in the days of film, finding out the higher ISO film of ISO1000...so photographers of that time used ISO 400 film by changing after every 36 exposure...But in dcam just u turn the dial,or press a button and any ISO is ready upto 3200 to 6400. so getting 400 or 800 is easy and set the shutter for ISO 400 as 1/60 AT F5.6 AND WITH THE BRILLIANT LIGHT OF THE STAGE, u can capture the perfect performances....however still in doubt, there is the LCD screen to tell u to increase or reduce the ISO or shutter speed....

Make sure for ur sitting, there is a press gallery, where u can set ur tripod or some solid support if u use big zoom and are afraid that pictures may go blurry...Here the fast lenses are of great help e.g.f2.8 in zooms or if u are close enough to the dancer, the prime lens with f1.4 is again of great value....and hand held shots upto 1/125 can be taken easily....there is no binding in exposure since u already have a 2GB or higher GB memory card....the editing u can do later at ur home since u are not a prss photographer...u can do it leisurely and use them for magazines, brochures etc later on....U are lucky enough, if the background is black where u can shoot multi exposures....with different postures.....so good with dance photography......shroti08@live.com