The Digital Capture of Light

Though I primarily identify myself as a travel and wildlife photographer, I’ve had opportunities in the past couple of years to cover live events like cultural programs. This has widened my repertoire and helped me understand the facets of this type of photography.

Most of my experience covering events has been in covering Bharatanatyam performances dance recitals. There are a number of issues to be considered when preparing for a shoot of this nature that make it quite different than preparing for a nature or an architectural shoot.

The most important factor is the ambiance itself. The performances are usually in large auditoriums, with special lighting for the stage. One thing that matters a lot in photography that is not understood by many is the white balance and color temperature. To explain this in simple terms, you’d have noticed how the color of objects varies depending on the nature of light i.e. they look different in the direct sunlight, under the shade and in indoor fluorescent light, etc. The color composition of these various sources of lights are different due to the differences in the mix of wavelengths in them. This is what, when reflected of the object causes the difference in color appearance. Therefore it is important to understand that the photograph is going to be depend on the color composition of the stage light. If I know some detail about the light, I can dial in the color temperature in the White Balance setting of the camera. If I don’t have the information, I shoot in RAW with an auto White Balance setting. The camera usually gets it right, but I can still fine tune the results in my photo editing software.

The other factor is the program itself and knowing when to click. Over the years, experience has taught me when to anticipate a pose and that helps me get a good read to when to click. But still I try whenever possible to try and attend a rehearsal so I know what to expect in the dance. That also helps me anticipate the location I can shoot a scene from to get the best possible shot. I try to use my flash during the dance so I can freeze the action, but there are some performers who request no flash during the program. For those cases, I have to be very aware of when the poses occur and use a high iso setting in my camera to be able to get as fast a shutter speed as possible.


One more thing I’ve learnt to do over time is to try and compose some group photos of the performance and also get some individual pictures of the dances in close-up. I usually arrive at the venue early and scout the stage. I get myself a good seat and lay out my gear – a couple of lenses, my memory cards and take some preliminary photos to make sure there’s no problems with the camera or the lighting on stage. Then once the program starts, I’m off and running!