I’m not a wedding photographer, though I have photographed weddings on three occasions, twice for co-workers and once for a sister-in-law. This week I had the opportunity to photograph the wedding of Figaro and Susanna, two people who have been getting married since 1786. These are publicity photos that I took at the final dress rehearsal of The Marriage of Figaro, which is being presented this weekend by The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music.
I’ve photographed opera rehearsals before and I always find the lighting a bit of a challenge. Some parts of the stage are very bright and others are rather dim. The stage lights often generate a different white balance in different locations. Also, I don’t own the fastest lenses in town; I used an EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS and an EF 70-200mm f/4L IS on a Canon 7D. So, that means I have to use a higher ISO and a slower shutter speed than I might prefer. Most of the shots with the long lens were taken on a tripod, though some were handheld. Since I moved around quite a bit during the rehearsal a tripod was not always convenient. Maybe I should invest in a monopod.
Most of these photos were taken using an ISO of 1600; others were taken at 800. The most common exposures were 1/60 or 1/125 at f/4 or 5.6. Over the course of 3.5 hours I took 490 photos. The main reason for the large number is that I will often take 6 – 10 of roughly the same image in order to try to capture the most interesting facial expressions. Since I have no idea of what’s coming next, I don’t know if there will be a better scene in which to capture certain actors so I just shoot them when I see them.
Check it out. The wedding’s enjoyable. The music’s by Mozart. Supertitles are provided for the non-Italians. The happy couple did not disclose the location of their honeymoon.