Beauty and the Beast, Live On Stage is presented several times a day in the 1,500-seat Theater of the Stars on Sunset Boulevard in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Like the movie, this live stage show mini-version is still my favorite at Walt Disney World.
Belle with the magic rose in Beauty and the Beast, Live On Stage.
Nikon D700/28-300VR, f/5.6, ISO 1800, EV +0.3, 300mm focal length.
I have a tough photographic history with this show. I talk about my battle with White Balance and how I solved it here: The Red Beast. For those wondering, yes, I used an Expodisc to set my white balance for the photo above.
Scott:
My first thought about your picture was about the white balance and how great the skin tone is. I go nuts with my Nikon D5000 trying to figure out white balance during shows (not just Disney, but high school stages too). I’ve tried using the preset manual feature by taking a picture of a white object on stage with some success but nothing like what you show. Why does the Expodisc work so much better than the preset manual feature? I also wonder if you use the Expodisc before the show begins, isn’t the lighting “up” but brought down once the show starts and using different kinds of lights, thus changing the white balance and you would need to re-adjust during the show?
Scott replies: The Expodisc takes its reading directly from the light. Cameras use reflected light.
For many shows, you would have to adjust as the lighting changes but, for Beauty and the Beast, the light “on” the main characters is pretty consistent.