Tips & Techniques
For catching the moment you want to preserve during action on stage, the camera features needed most are a large and bright view with visible edges to compose in, continuous viewing so you can see the exact moment you want, quick and accurate focus with a fast lens, and that instant shutter response provided by any Leica rangefinder camera. Also, most important in a theater, a quiet shutter. For school or amateur theater the normal 50mm focal length works well from a seat near the front, showing the characters relatively large. But if the whole stage is suddenly wanted, a two-shot panorama can be joined together by computer after the pictures are scanned to a disk. The 50 is also very usable after the show for close single portraits or groups. No lens changing, no slow speed zoom lens, and no bag full of equipment.
Why film? The advantage of using a wide-latitude film is that a base exposure can be used. The film can accommodate two stops or more of brightness above and below the base exposure, getting all the bright and dim areas on the negatives without having to change aperture or shutter speed for each shot. Just like automatic, but with no delay or error. It is difficult to meter on stage using a TTL camera meter from the audience given such things as bright figures against a dark background, and vice versa. Instead, film gives us the advantage of using a single base exposure midway between the brights and darks. This can be calculated beforehand with closeup metering, and then learned from experience, so the same base exposure can be used for all the scenes that have similar lighting. Exposure corrections for bright figures against a dark background, or the reverse, are now made automatically from the wide latitude negatives by those modern ink-printing machines and their operators at the processing station. If any further corrections are needed, they can be made by re-printing to your satisfaction afterwards.
The Camera For a long time I did this work using an M3 with its large viewfinder image and central rangefinder spot, using ISO 200 and 400 color negative film, and exposing by experience. However, after my eye developed an astigmatism and glasses were needed to use the M3’s rangefinder on distant subjects, I could no longer see the entire frame in the finder. After changing to the 0.72x finder of an M6, I could again see the whole 50mm finder frame with my glasses, but then both VF and RF were rather smaller than I wanted. That put me back to trying the old 50mm brightline finder SBOOI which I had used during early days before the M3. I found it worked very well with my glasses, and with the benefit of no distracting RF spot in the middle of the frame. And to get a larger rangefinder image I went back to my old Leica IIIc. It’s 1.5x enlarged RF works very well combined with the life size SBOOI, plus it has the advantage of a small range of diopter adjustment. The IIIc, along with the collapsible 50mm f/2 Summitar lens, is easily carried on a strap under a jacket or in a pocket. Considerably slimmer and lighter than the M3 with f/1.4 Summilux in the old days, I lose very little in capability.
A stage shot of a grandson made during an elementary school production of “Oliver” at 1/100th at f/2. Normal high school and commercial theater lighting usually allows a base exposure of 1/100th at f/2.8 on ISO 400 film. This smaller school’s lighting was a little dimmer, but provided the advantage of an elevated seat in the stands close to the stage
At f/2 or 2.8 the focus can be maintained well enough with occasional corrections following movement on stage. The life-size action can be monitored in the viewfinder with no distractions whatsoever. And the continuous vision in the finder shows the exact moment just as I got it. It is a simple, perhaps even Spartan approach, but it keeps me close to the principals of candid photography. I like it far better than a modern SLR camera with its noisy shutter and many automated programs and features that are difficult to keep track of, and only serving to delay the timing and distract attention away from the subject — not to mention totally losing the view each time the shutter is tripped so you never know exactly what you got!