Doing event photography is something I have always enjoyed. Before deciding to make photography as a career I used to take my canon ixus out every weekend and take pictures of people.
The main skill I learnt while starting out doing event photography was how to shoot in many different lighting conditions. For example in one week I could have photographed 3 events:
- An outdoor event in the middle of the afternoon with bright blue sky.
- An indoor event with a mixture of coloured walls and ceilings
- Outdoor and indoor evening shoot.
All 3 scenarios pose very different lighting conditions and depending on your clients brief may involve, long exposure shots, lots of well flashed people shots with ambient light or flashed fast moving objects. As an event photographer you need to become quick at reading different lighting situations so when you are faced with a candid opportunity you can capture the shot. More recently I have been sharing corporate events with photographers whom off load work to me because they are too busy. I am getting great feedback on my work to help me improve. This also has exposed me to to a much higher level of client.
Many social and corporate events require low light and having good quality camera’s makes life much easier. Getting a new Canon 5d mark 2 has seen the quality of my work be boosted. I can now shoot with ISO’s of 1600-3200 + and give clients high enough quality images. Where as my Canon 1d mark2 N – this is not possible. Any file over ISO 800 looks to grainy.
Preparation: Find out as much info as you can about the event. What is the main subject? What style does the client require? How many photos they require? Start and end times? etc
- Fully charge all your batteries the night before & have backups.
- Google map search the exact location and print this off.
- Be 15 mins early and suss out the environment before you begin.
- Have enough memory. 16 -32 gig
- Pen & paper – if you are asked to get names.
On the job
Meet & greet, Always shake hands with your clients. Always say goodbye. Sometimes I show my clients a few of the best photos to gage whether Im shooting their brief & give them the confidence about my work.
- I shoot a lot on f 2.8. This gives you more light, faster shutter speed and more creative scope.
- Groups of 4-5+ people best to shoot at F5.6 and above.
- Keep people on same depth of field (DOF) – In straight line to get everyone in equal focus.
- Watch out for poles & objects near your subjects heads.
Types of shots:
- Great people shots. Photos that make your main subject look perfect.
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- Try creative crops. Different angles, up high, down low etc.
- Shoot detail shots. This could be product on a table, clothing textures etc. Usually I do detail on my 70-200 lens at f2.8.
- Shooting people with other elements of people can give you very nice balanced compositions. It creates atmosphere.
- Action shots:
- Photograph the environment as a whole. As well as your subject you want to show their surrounding. So shoot with your widest lens from far back. Get to an alleviated area and shoot down.
- Branding shots and branding with people.
