Drama & musicals photography

[LocalHero1953]

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Training for the duelling scene.
Rehearsals for Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. This is Viola/Cesario.
SL2-S + Summilux-M 75 at f/1.4, ISO 3200. I have used Lightroom's AI tools to desaturate the background and reduce noise.

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[Almizilero]

Great shot. I'm surprised you had to de-noise it, the lighting seems ok and ISO  3200 isn't that bad with the SL2-S?

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[LocalHero1953]

1 hour ago, Almizilero said:

Great shot. I'm surprised you had to de-noise it, the lighting seems ok and ISO  3200 isn't that bad with the SL2-S?

You are right. Last night I took nearly 1000 shots, deleted about half of them in an initial cull, then batch edited them: Auto Exposure, Denoise. This is my (current) normal practice for such theatre shots, which the publicity team want as soon as possible! I then work through them, cropping, making more individual adjustments to colour and exposure, and deleting perhaps another 200 as I go. (When I am not taking such large number of photos, I would apply noise reduction individually).

In fact the AI Denoise made very little change in this case, as you can see in these 100% crops - perhaps not noticeable at full size. Thank you for the question: I should have done this check earlier, but I am pleased to see that the AI did not apply excessive denoise where it isn't needed!

First, with all the same settings except for noise reduction:

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Now the same crop with AI Denoise.

Edited June 12, 2023 by LocalHero1953

[Almizilero]

Thanks for the explanation! This would be more or less my workflow as well, minus the Denoise. Which I only do individually, because the Adobes AI takes forever (even on a quite modern machine) compared to DXO. Like, at least a minute per picture, so I would have to let it run overnight and do all the work the next morning (which sounds nice, actually ).  But it's really good to know that the AI takes the actual image into account! So one could just let it run over all the images 👍

[LocalHero1953]

14 minutes ago, Almizilero said:

Thanks for the explanation! This would be more or less my workflow as well, minus the Denoise. Which I only do individually, because the Adobes AI takes forever (even on a quite modern machine) compared to DXO. Like, at least a minute per picture, so I would have to let it run overnight and do all the work the next morning (which sounds nice, actually ).  But it's really good to know that the AI takes the actual image into account! So one could just let it run over all the images 👍

Denoise took about 85 minutes for 470 images. Since I had just come back from the rehearsal (yesterday afternoon, not evening as I wrote earlier), I didn't want to start detailed editing, so I just imported them, made the initial cull, and then set the AI Denoise running (and sat down with a glass of wine). I shall spend the rest of today going through them in more detail with a fresh eye.

Edit. I also discovered that one can mask an image like this with the AI mask, partly desaturate the background to reduce distractions, and then batch copy the mask to other similar images. I have several shots in this sequence, and the AI mask was batch copied to the others. It's a real time saver.

Edited June 12, 2023 by LocalHero1953

[LocalHero1953]

Dress rehearsal from 'Lovesong' by Abi Morgan, a beautiful, sad and intense play. Two couples, actually the same couple but separated by a lifetime of marriage, reflecting on their unfulfilled dreams, regrets and happiness as the older woman faces death. For much of the play both generations are on stage at the same time, interweaving and, occasionally, interacting. The challenge for a photographer is to show the relationships between the four characters. This shot was easy!

SL2-S + 24-90SL

 

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Edited July 25, 2023 by LocalHero1953

[Bateleur]

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I enjoyed going through this thread, some wonderfully expressive and sensitive expressions and great photography. Looking forward to new submissions.

[LocalHero1953]

Another photo from 'Lovesong'. The poignant final scene where the innocent young couple sit beneath their peach tree as their older selves retire to bed, the woman having just intentionally taken an overdose.
SL2-S + 24-90.

 

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[LocalHero1953]

And for something -almost- completely different........ Early rehearsals for Edward Albee's 'Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?'. The common element of an older and younger couple, but whereas 'Lovesong' is gentle, this is angry, like a coarse tooth saw, spinning on an eccentric bearing.
SL2-S, Apo-Summicron-SL 90.

 

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Edited July 27, 2023 by LocalHero1953

[LocalHero1953]

Dance practice, for a new play Electra : Haimara, to be performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in a couple of weeks.
SL2-S, 24-90SL
As with any rehearsal in an informal venue, most of the later rehearsal shots look better in monochrome, avoiding distracting backgrounds and inappropriate costumes. But I quite like these in colour.

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[stuny]

Pre-curtain at the new Broadway musical, New York, New York,

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[Almizilero]

Some cracking new images! I love the black&whites (despite my signature ;D ), they carry so strong emotions. And the practice pictures are beautiful as well. You had some beautiful light with those big windows!

[stuny]

Set for the Broadway production of Network, 35 minutes and 41 seconds before curtain

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[Almizilero]

I've got a nice “before the show” picture as well. The two choreographers discussing the stage before the premiere:

 

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[LocalHero1953]

Another new work to be performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in a week or so: Palindrome: The Musical, set in the dispatching warehouse for an online shopping website (I wonder which one....?). 

Duets.

SL2-S and 24-90SL

 

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[LocalHero1953]

When I arrived for the rehearsal in the previous post, they were all standing round the piano going through one number. So I pulled out the stunning Apo-Summicron-SL 90.

 

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[Almizilero]

I have no experience with shooting musicals, but I'm sorry to say that I find the open mouths (because, singing) a bit distracting. I love the last one of the first batch, though. The actress is very much in the moment and the picture captures this beautifully. The rehearsal pictures are great, especially the one with the refection in the piano. Even though the ipad looks totally out of place 😂 Modern times ... 👍

[LocalHero1953]

7 minutes ago, Almizilero said:

I have no experience with shooting musicals, but I'm sorry to say that I find the open mouths (because, singing) a bit distracting. I love the last one of the first batch, though. The actress is very much in the moment and the picture captures this beautifully. The rehearsal pictures are great, especially the one with the refection in the piano. Even though the ipad looks totally out of place 😂 Modern times ... 👍

That's interesting about open mouths - I take quite a lot of shots in a sequence because a high percentage have closed eyes or mouths and I like to see both open. I'd be interested in others' opinions, and I will ask around - it's not something I'd thought about before.

I wondered if the ipad would draw a comment! The pianist is actually one of the writers/composers, so it is her own score. I see this use quite a lot among students, though - much less with the city amateur groups.

[hansvons]

Just stumbled across your thread for the first time. That's a hell of a lot of images and time you have spent in the theatre world.

Many look like well-executed, interesting images, documenting the work behind the scenes, and of course, the actual show, essentially memories or material for advertisments, but some shots lose their documentary origins and are images of their own. Impressive!

What I find intriguing is the normality (if that's a word) of your subjects when rehearsing. Many of them don't look like “proper” actors, and don't have that scent of what I feel and see when I meet actors. But they are equally engaged, have these bright eyes, the absolute will.
And that's exactly the charm of parts of your photography. You think “what are these people doing?” if you don't know the context. And that’s precisely when photography turns into fine art. In your case it’s the unpredicted insight in people who might be our neighbours. B&W and some reframing could perhaps help that. Or not.

Hope this makes sense. 

BTW, if theatre performance is the story open mouths are fine, in my opinion. 

 

Edited August 8, 2023 by hansvons

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[LocalHero1953]

Thank you, @hansvons, for your kind remarks, and for your commentary. I started this thread not just for my work, but in the hope that it would tease out other theatre photographers in the forum - I'd like to learn from different approaches and styles, and I've really enjoyed seeing the work of @Almizilero in particular.

Although I've been doing this for about five years, it is only in the last year that I have made connections in the student drama and dance community. Although somewhat chaotic and disorganised (I had to wait nearly two hours for one rehearsal to start) their talent and energy are very engaging - and they haven't yet learned to be, as you say, 'proper actors'!

Colour or B&W.....the challenge is how to draw the attention to the main subjects when you don't have full control over their positioning (and sometimes not your own). Typical rehearsal venues have distracting backgrounds, fluorescent lighting, and the actors are not in costume, so unless I can lose distractions by close-ups with thin depth of focus, I convert to B&W. Where they are in costume for rehearsal or performance I prefer colour. I use the 24-90SL zoom most often for versatility, but I increasingly use the Apo-Summicron-SL primes for their ability to isolate the subject (and other qualities).