Time flies... I have not posted a blog entry in many weeks, sorry about that, I'll try harder in the future. Unfortunately my day job gets in the way once and a while.
Mary Ann has been involved with fundraising for the Richmond Hill Philharmonic Orchestra for most of November and December, so the performing arts weighed heavily on my mind.
My friend Lance invited me to photograph the dress rehearsal for Opera York's production of Lucia di Lammermoor with him. The biggest challenge to photographing a dress rehearsal is the lighting (or should I say the lack thereof). And no flash allowed. I set up two cameras, the D300s on a tripod with a 24-70mm lens for full stage shots, and walking around with the D3 and the 80-200mm lens. Here are a few of the images.
These images were taken at ISO 3200, with a shutter speed of between 1/80th and 1/160th of a second, with an aperture of between f2.8 and f3.5. The D3 and Lightroom do a great job dealing with digital noise in high ISO images. I was happy with the shoot.
I also had a opportunity to photograph the dress rehearsal of Alexander MacKenzie High School's production of Anything Goes! In addition to the lighting challenges mentioned above, this production had many dancing sequences to deal with. Here are a few of the images.
The lighting was brighter for this production, so I was able to shoot most at ISO 2000, with a shutter speed of 1/160th of a second, at an aperture of f4.5.
Having the equipment to handle the higher ISO, slower shutter speed and wider aperture is a big help in capturing these images. Another variable is timing (sometimes luck) in capturing eye contact with the actors (and bonus marks for having a catch light in their eyes).
Stay tuned, there is another fun dress rehearsal coming next...
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Wishing everyone Happy Holidays. Thanks for reading...
Mark
