The Art lessons

The play has a cast of three, who are on stage most of the time, with a lot of motion. The White Barn stage is a small raised platform against a black curtained wall with wood pillars.

35mm,  1/200 sec, f/6.3,  Mode: Av,  Metering: Multi-segment,  Exp comp: -1 1/3,  ISO: 1600.

The curtains allowed me to shoot from almost anywhere in the house and get the actors in sharp contrast to the background.

70mm,  1/160 sec, f/4.5,  Mode: Av,  Metering: Multi-segment,  Exp comp: -1 1/3,  ISO: 1600.

Such a consistent background made it easy to line up the performers in shots to capture relationships. In the next two shots I changed the focal point to emphasize each actor in turn. First focusing on the actor in the foreground using a single spot focus point.

70mm,  1/160 sec, f/5.6,  Mode: Av,  Metering: Multi-segment,  Exp comp: -2,  ISO: 2000.  

Then focusing on the actor in the back by moving the focus point.

70mm,  1/160 sec, f/5.6,  Mode: Av,  Metering: Multi-segment,  Exp comp: -2,  ISO: 2000.

 I expanded the depth of field for shots where I wanted both actors in sharper focus.

70mm,  1/200 sec, f/6.3,  Mode: Av,  Metering: Multi-segment,  Exp comp: -1 1/3,  ISO: 1250.

The stage in NVC’s black box presented different challenges.

The audience in this space surrounds the stage on three sides. When shooting across the stage to the audience, I had to underexpose to make the seats disappear, as in this shot. The lighting designer had  kept the stage lighting from splashing onto the seating.

34mm,  1/160 sec, f/6.3,  Mode: Av,  Metering: Multi-segment,  Exp comp: -3,  ISO: 1600.

In this shot, the only evidence of the seating are the dim white seat upholstery tags hanging down under the seats. (I wanted to tear them off, but it’s a Federal offense!)

Shooting against the dark seating, then the light-colored wall background required frequent exposure compensation changes. Here the background is dark, requiring -2 2/3 stops underexposure when using the multi-segment metering mode.

52mm,  1/200 sec, f/4,  Mode: Av,  Metering: Multi-segment,  Exp comp: -2 2/3,  ISO: 1600.

Just a few shots later I had to boost the exposure a full stop to -1 2/3 to maintain a record enough light on the actors.

70mm,  1/500 sec, f/5,  Mode: Av,  Metering: Multi-segment,  Exp comp: -1 2/3,  ISO: 1600.

Shooting against different backgrounds led to a number of over- and underexposed images, which got tossed into the memory wastebasket.

Here endeth the Art lessons.

The Three Arts

I shot three dress rehearsals of Art by Yasmina Reza earlier this month. Two were performed at Napa Valley College in the new black box theater. The third was performed in The White Barn theater in St. Helena. Here are a few of my favorite shots taken from the three rehearsal performances. 

 

Scrooge-A-Rama

I've been shooting The Christmas Carol at Sonoma County Repertory Theatre, The Rep, for a few years. Here's a collection of the Scrooges:

Eric Thompson from the 2003 production.

Eric in 2004.

2005

Scott Phillips in 2007.

Tim Hayes (right) and Samson Hood in 2008.

Tim in 2009.

Joe Winkler in 2010, coming soon!

 The Christmas Carol opens November 17th at The Rep in Sebastopol. Bah humbug!