Low Light Theatre Images

Challenging situations such as these call for the use of lenses with large apertures, and Michael McCreary shares these photos from the play "Importance of Being Earnest" staged by the theatre department of Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah GA, and shot with the Nikkor 85mm f/1.8D AF lens mounted on the Nikon D70.

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1. View a larger version of the images and read the forum thread. Note that the pics were shot handheld, with the D70 set on JPEG Fine, Aperture priority, apertures f2.8-3.2, center weighted metering, shutter speeds ranging from 1/60-1/125 seconds, exposure compensation of +0.3 EV, incandescent (tungsten) WB (white balance), and ISO640 to ISO800. Michael remarks that he had ten times more keepers with the Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 than with other lenses.
2. The price of a used Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 might cost around USD300.
3. More shooting, bracing and breathing techniques are shared here.
4. The images were postprocessed in Photoshop Elements 3.
5. More notes on the advantages of using the Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 in low-light situations
6. More theater images can be seen at Michael's gallery on PBase.com
7. Additional Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 images shot in a dimly-lit school auditorium, contributed by Victor