Johnny Mercer Theatre, Savannah Civic Center

by Sean Setters

With nothing planned on slightly overcast Saturday, I decided to venture downtown to find an interior space in Savannah to photograph. Although not my primary focus, I wanted to be able to shoot outdoor subjects (buildings, fountains, etc.) as well should a suitable interior space prove elusive. I packed a Lowepro Nova Sport 35L AW with the following gear before heading downtown:

• Canon EOS 5D Mark III DSLR Camera
• Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM Lens
• Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM Lens
• Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 IF ED UMC Lens
• Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L Tilt-Shift Lens (predecessor to version II)
• B+W Circular Polarizing Filter
• 15-stop ND Filter (similar product here)
• Step-Up Filter Adapter Rings
• Miops Camera Trigger
• Feisol TT-15 Mini Carbon Fiber Tabletop Tripod & ball head
• Bottled water

I also brought along my Induro Carbon Fiber Tripod (CT314, now discontinued) fitted with a Arca-Swiss Monoball Z1 Ball Head to serve as my primary means of support.

Notes on Gear Choices

First off, Tip #1: When weight is not necessarily an issue, fill your bag completely with gear and/or supplies. This will enable you to quickly check to make sure you haven't left any gear behind when packing up after shooting at a location. The gear above completely filled my bag.

A camera and tripod are a given when it comes to low-light interior photography for me. The EF 17-40L, TS-E 24L and Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 encompass the typical focal lengths I use for indoor and outdoor architecture photography with the TS-E providing the excellent benefit of keeping vertical lines straight (when 24mm is a viable focal length option). I brought along the EF 24-105L IS and circular polarizer (CPL) to cover general purpose needs if I should come across anything interesting outdoors that was not ideally covered by the wider focal lengths. I threw in the 15 stop ND just in case I wanted to photograph a fountain (with blurred water) or a building exterior where individual pedestrians would be unnoticeable (blurred to oblivion). The step up rings would allow me to use the CPL and ND on all of my lenses except for the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8, thereby increasing my options. I also brought along the Miops Camera Trigger for time lapse purposes and to provide the ultimate flexibility in bracketed exposures. With extra room in my bag, I also packed the table top tripod in case I found an interesting place to position the camera or for low-level photography needs. I filled the remaining slot in my bag with a water bottle as I had no idea how far I'd be walking on the relatively warm November day.

Venturing Downtown

With no specific destination in mind, I traveled to downtown Savannah and found a free metered parking space on W Oglethorpe Ave. Tip #2: Parking in downtown Savannah is free on the weekends (and after 5pm on weekdays). As soon as I parked, the Savannah Civic Center at the corner of Oglethorpe and Montgomery St. caught my eye. As I neared the building, I noticed people were going in one of the doors idicating that it was open on this particular Sunday. Conspicuously, there was a lot of temporary signs posted which warned, "No Loaded Weapons are Allowed on Premises."

After entering the building, I noticed several individuals filing past a table on the other end of the foyer and filing into one of the larger event halls. As it turns out, there was an NRA sponsored gun show being held at the Civic Center. "Ah, now the abundant signage makes sense," I thought.

After exploring the building's entryway, I found a set of doors with the heading, "Johnny Mercer Theatre." As the security guard's office was positioned next to the theater doors, I poked my head inside with tripod in-hand and asked if the theater was open and if I could take a look around. He nodded and said, "Sure thing! The door's open."

Tip #3: If you are in an unfamiliar place, make sure you are not violating a facility's regulations by exploring. Being respectful and asking for permission to wonder about may not technically be necessary (depending on the facility's policies), but doing so may mean favors, if needed, are more easily granted in the future. Or as my grandmother would have said, "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar."

The theater was extremely dark. The aisle ways were lit with dim LED strip lights and there was a flood light in the middle of the stage pointed toward the seats. After walking up on stage, I could see that the balcony aisle ways were also lit with a few overhead lights.

Unfortunately, I thought it might be a bit presumptuous to ask someone to turn on the theater lights, and I didn't feel like cashing in my good will karma just yet. As such, I tried a few bracketed exposures utilizing the the Miops Camera Trigger to trigger the camera via smartphone while standing behind the stage light. While bracketing technically worked to give me enough dynamic range to ultimately create an HDR image, the scene did not seem inspiring.

After a little while, though, someone who worked at the facility entered the theater and made his way down the aisle as he was headed to a room to the right of the stage. After a small conversation, the man asked, "Do you want me to turn on the lights?"

"Um, yes, that would be great!"

With the lights turned on, the view in front of me came alive. I continued taking bracketed exposures to give me the ultimate leeway in post processing. After viewing the results on the back LCD, I decided it was missing something. Looking around, I found a stool to serve as a foreground element and add a bit of interest. I returned the stool to its original location, packed up my gear, thanked the facility employee for turning on the lights and headed off.

Post Processing

I loaded a 7-image auto exposure bracket into HDRSoft's Photomatix Pro 5 and, starting with one of the "Natural" settings, I adjusted the sliders until I arrived at an HDR image that I liked. I then loaded the resulting .TIFF file into Photoshop CC for slight adjustments to color and levels.

A larger resolution version of this shot can be found by clicking on the image atop this post.