Hi all,

I recently purchased a Fuji DX-10, and have been very happy with it.

I've been taking photos at recitals and student productions. The DX-10 is only rated as an ISO 125 camera (or thereabouts) but I've been getting decent results with it in auto mode with the flash turned off, provided I keep my hands steady for the 1/4 second exposure.

The colors tend to be very saturated, and highlights seem to be more intense than they ought to be. Details on faces and clothing tend to get washed out by bright highlights.

I haven't played much with manual mode, but I figure a good tripod and the right manual settings should provide much better pictures. Most times, I'm shooting in recital halls that are lit from above the stage and from out in the house with strong yellowish lights. Note that I can't use my flash as it's distracting for the audience and the performers.

Should I be using positive or negative EV compensation in this case? I can use flourescent, incandescent, and sunny white balance settings. Which is appropriate?

Thanks in advance!

-- Martin (mquiazon@mindspring.com), November 16, 1999

Answers

You should be underexposing to get proper exposure on the subjects on stage. The average reading the camera gets from the entire stage is darker than the brightly lit subjects on stage. I also do a lot of theater shooting and typically underexpose by 1.3 to 2 stops (depending on overall stage illumination). For white balance I use auto. This usually comes pretty close and I can tweak it further with image editing programs on the computer.

-- Dennis Pereira (dpereira@ultranet.com), November 17, 1999.