Help - new photographer!

[crowgirl1]

Please bear with me as I am new to DSLRs and I trying to learn to properly use my Canon 6D and am having a terrible time trying to shoot a play at my child's school. 

I'm sure it is something I am doing wrong. I began by using the Auto setting, but was getting some blur. It was recomended that I try shooting in Aperture Priority, which I have been doing, but the photos are coming out very overly saturated, dark,and not natural looking at all. Others look very overexposed. What do I need to adjust besides setting the Fstop number, and how?

What am I doing wrong? It is tough shooting a play, particularly one where the lights are changing a lot, and kids moving, but even in the well lit scenes, where they are relatively still,  I am finding that many of my pictures are just terrible. Attached are two of the "better" ones.

Are there settings I need to change, or I am not setting the camera properly to begin with? Any help would be appreciated, as I have only one more chance to shoot this play tomorrow.  

[wq9nsc]

Wadizzle,

EXCELLENT point on the choice of metering!

Rodger

[kvbarkley]

While there may be a metering problem, modern cameras are pretty amazing. My circus shots came out very well metered. Certainly good enough for raw.

[Waddizzle]

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@kvbarkley wrote:

While there may be a metering problem, modern cameras are pretty amazing. My circus shots came out very well metered. Certainly good enough for raw.

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For your scene, standard Evaluative Metering was probably good enough.  Your background is not anywhere near as dark as the OP’s background in some of the sample shots.  In fact, metering a wel lit subject against a very dark background is a recognized metering challenge.

That is a screenshot from the Instruction Manual of a C100 Cinema Camera.  The camera has a special metering called “Spotlight”, which is more or less the exact opposite of a backlit scene.

[crowgirl1]

Unfortunately, I am dealing with both spotlight scenes and other backlit scenes. My camera does not have a spotlight mode - what metering would you suggest for those spot light scenes? The shots I'm taking of a kid in a spotlight with dark background are blowing out bigtime. 

[MikeSowsun]

You need to shoot manual with a brightly lit subject and black background.  Spot metering will help, but those king of lighting conditions are very challenging. 

The problem is is the huge variation between the brightly lit subject and the black background. Moving the camera just slightly can cause big variations in brightness and mess up any auto exposure. 

[ebiggs1]

" I am dealing with both spotlight scenes and other backlit scenes."

The choice of "modes" will always help.  Choosing the right one is not a thing that any of these guys here and I can tell you specifically. Actually exact settings at all!  WHat I suggested you do will get you close but you still need to make 'tweaks' to that.  Now add the fact, and every photographer reaches this point at some time or another is, photographic gear has limits. One of those limits is DR or dynamic range. If the backlight or spotlight exceeds this it is going to be very difficult to impossible to get a perfect shot. Use the settings I suggested as a starting point. Then make some adjustments if need be. I.E. change the ISO setting or perhaps aperture, etc.

[Waddizzle]

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@crowgirl1 wrote:

Unfortunately, I am dealing with both spotlight scenes and other backlit scenes. My camera does not have a spotlight mode - what metering would you suggest for those spot light scenes? The shots I'm taking of a kid in a spotlight with dark background are blowing out bigtime. 

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I would experiment with partial metering or center weighted metering.  This Canon 101 video may help you to understand how metering works, and the different metering modes.  I would save a special metering mode as a Custom Shooting Mode.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wKA92h0MfIE#

Hope this helps.

[Waddizzle]

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@crowgirl1 wrote:

Unfortunately, I am dealing with both spotlight scenes and other backlit scenes. My camera does not have a spotlight mode - what metering would you suggest for those spot light scenes? The shots I'm taking of a kid in a spotlight with dark background are blowing out bigtime. 

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Another solution occurred to me.  Use the previous suggestion to shoot in Av mode.  Take a couple of initial shots, and look at the histogram on the rear of the camera.  You can dial in AEC, Automatic Exposure Compensation, to correct the exposure when the histogram shows over/under exposures.

[RobertTheFat]

Crowgirl, you're obviously doing this in rehearsals and with the approval of The Authorities, so this should allow you to play some games with the lighting. If you need more light in the background, have them brighten it while you're photographing the scene. A camera doesn't see what people see, and you sometimes have to cheat. The fact that the actual performance will use different lighting is irrelevant.

When I worked for a city government and was photographing, say, a lecture or awards ceremony that wasn't being televised, I'd often ask to have the TV lights turned on anyway, because it improved the lighting to my advantage. You should be able to apply the same principle.