That is a head-scratcher with such an advanced camera. The D7000 is capable of relatively noise-free images through
at least 1600 ISO and not really bad at all through 3200 ISO. Your ratio of good to crap is not unheard of in that situation.
If you ever feel like you have time to experiment in that environment, you can switch to center-weighted or spot metering
and see how the camera evaluates the scene in that mode. You have this all-black background and these fairly light
subjects, it might give you a little more room to breathe. You are stopping motion fairly well, so you must have a decent
enough shutter speed, but there is some blur so I am guessing that your speed was around 1/80th or 1/100th.
Photobucket hides the EXIF data so I can't tell. I would say that next time a good strategy would be to use AUTO ISO in
menus (page 103 in the manual
http://cdn-10.nikon-cdn.com/pdf/manu...2/D7000_EN.pdf)
you can set a max ISO sensitivity the camera will automatically select, as well as a minimum shutter speed to reach before
it decides to intervene and adjust the ISO. This is what I suggest when in the green AUTO mode.
If you end up in the "S" mode and set a shutter speed minimum of say 1/150th or 1/200th, intent on stopping motion,
then the camera will select it's own aperture setting, which in this light will likely be wide open. You can use the ISO to help
yourself crawl out of the wide open apertures which tend towards softness. Which is not bad in ballet shots, BUT it also
makes your depth of field a relative knife slice. Hard to get everyone in focus that way. The reason I suggest manual in this
environment is so you can nail down everything that has to be nailed down, then work your "luxury variables" to suit the
situation. If you want to stop motion, there is no way around a 'high' shutter speed. With that given, your next concern
in your head should be how much of this lovely stopped motion do you want to have in focus? That will determine your f/stop,
and once you look at your light meter in the VF, THAT will make your last decision for you, how much ISO to dial in to get that
meter pegged to the middle, or in my own shooting, a touch on the dark side of the meter. (keep in mind that if you have not
changed the setting in the menu to reverse it, the meter will seem backwards to you, the further the needle moves to the right,
the darker the exposure.) Once you get the general exposure set in a joint like this theater space, it will stay pretty much
the same from your vantage point. If you've dialed in too much ISO and grain is appearing, decide whether or not
you HAVE to stop motion or not and back off the shutter speed, or decide if you can live with a shallower depth of field and
dial in a lower F number with the front aperture control wheel. its fun and easy once you get good enough with your camera
that you can do these things on the fly without feeling like you are missing the show.