Young Actors on Stage (Long post)

[AntonioCorreia]

Here are six photographs I took during a theatre performance by a group of young actors. They’re not recent shots, but they stayed with me, and I wanted now to share them here.

More than just showing faces, I tried to capture those moments when emotion bursts through through the body, the gaze, the posture, the voice. There's tension, commitment, strength, and I know you can feel it in the images.
It was a powerful experience, and I believe these photos, simple as they are, hold something of that energy that filled the stage.
I’m genuinely curious to hear what you think, as usual.

[billtils]

Love these! Thanks for posting.

[William W]

Here are six photographs I took during a theatre performance by a group of young actors. . . . I tried to capture those moments when emotion bursts through through the body, the gaze, the posture, the voice. There's tension, commitment, strength . . . I’m genuinely curious to hear what you think, as usual.

Certainly as a set of six, there's a great power to it, Bravo: I could envisage the images being used for a Theatre Programme, for example.

Breaking the images down for individual critique, some are stronger than others: again taking the example of their use in a Theatre Programme, if I were the Editor, I would look for a stronger Image for the Characters in Images one, two and five.

Rationale:

Image one - it captures the gaze and mystique of the character well: the background is distracting; especially distracting whereby it distracts from the 'unknown' element out of Frame which has the Character's attention, or fear.

Image two - stands out as a tad pedestrian compared and contrasted to the other five: it is more the typical "run of the mill Theatre Shot", and I would strive for and encourage a more impacting Image from you.

Image five - excellent capture of the Main Subject, yet the Background just interferes a tad too much.

***

As a general comment - "tension, commitment, strength" in an Image are built in many ways; one way that has been exploited in this set of Images is by the Main Subject(s) reaction to the unknown; the unknown in these images is always out of the frame - which is a great technique: but when the unknown is out of Frame it is imperative that all the Image Palette is either occupied by the Tension -or - Negative Space.

Such is often difficult to achieve on the fly during a live Stage Performance, especially if one does not have the freedom of moving to various Camera Viewpoints. In these Shooting Scenarios, Shallow Depth of Field is (obviously) one's friend - but also Lighting Changes, for example it's usually more advantageous to shoot when the Follow Spot is on the Main Subject; also nuanced Post Production to drop the Exposure on the Background and/or create more Background Blur artificially.

A cursory interrogation of two images revealed the use of the Sony 135/1.8 lens, using Av Mode, so it's assumed that you were pulling the shots at F/1.8 most, if not all of the time: so it's assumed you're maxed out apropos Shallow DoF.

Nice work and the 135/1.8 is a nice bit of gear for such work.

WW

[pschlute]

You have captured these very well.

[Geoff F]

I would say basically good images although in a few cases I think the background highlights could be reduced a little bit.

A couple have out of focus hands. Many people don't worry about that as long as the faces are in focus, but hands can be an important part of a photo so I like to see them sharp or not visible at all. I know, it is difficult to take real life quick shots with everything in focus when you want an aperture setting that excludes the background.

[AntonioCorreia]

@ Bill
Thank you for your comment. There’s really no need to thank me for posting.

@ William
First of all, I must sincerely thank you for taking the time to write such a thoughtful appreciation of the images I’ve shared here.
Bill begins with what I can certainly take as a compliment – and naturally, I’m pleased with that.
It seems perfectly normal to me that some images are stronger than others. As one might expect, I myself also prefer some over others.

Image one
The fact that the background might be distracting doesn’t particularly bother me, and I wouldn’t really know how to remove it completely in post. Or perhaps I would – with some careful and patient work using the usual software – but I don’t usually go that far.
Still, in this image, I did work on the entire right-hand side to remove what was originally there, which I felt best to eliminate and replace with what you now see.

Image two
I can’t help but agree that this image is somewhat ordinary compared to the other five: it’s more of a typical “theatrical shot”, which could just as easily have been snapped at a random street performance.
Perhaps I should have chosen one with a bit more character and impact.

Image five
Even in this one, I used some subtle tricks to hide a less interesting area and even a “cat’s eye” effect from the lens that I really didn’t like. I also toned down the colour intensity a bit.

I had never considered the idea of the unknown being outside the frame as a particularly effective technique but now that you mention it, I do find it quite appealing.
I didn’t have much room to move around, though, as it was an outdoor event with a crowd gathered, and moving about would only have disturbed the audience somewhat.

It may not be directly relevant here, but there’s something I really enjoy although it’s not always possible: photographing against the light.
It often produces striking and finely contoured images, which I particularly like but, as we know, the opportunity isn’t always there.

About the lens
This lens is a real pleasure to work with, but it does have one drawback that bothers me: it’s just too heavy.
I usually shoot in aperture priority mode, as it gives me better control over the depth of field which, I believe, I managed here with some success.

Thanks once again for your extensive and helpful feedback. Most welcome !

@ Peter
Thank you, Peter, for your comment as you know, I always appreciate it.

@ Geoff
Yes, hands are something we should try to keep in focus too, but in this case, it simply wasn’t possible the shallow depth of field didn’t allow both face and hands to be sharp, as they were on different focal planes.
One thing’s for sure: you can’t have it all !
Thanks for your comment too, Geoff !