Five Tips For Event Photography

Event Photography can be intimidating. Often it’s a long day full of shooting and you aren’t able to do too much preparation beforehand. Here are a few tips to make your day go smoothly!

1. Look Professional – It’s always a good idea to dress professionally no matter what you are shooting, but at an event your look should be professional as well as subtle. You are the photographer and every one will know that by the large DSLR in your hands! You are not the star of the show and so you do not want to look like it. A good idea is to wear all black, very inconspicuous but still professional.

2. Write yourself a checklist before you go – Have a checklist of gear as well as shots you would like to get. The more present everything is in your head the more likely you will be to not forget anything. Ensure you have formatted memory cards, charged batteries, lenses, tripod, cameras, lights, backdrops etc. This may seem like common knowledge but triple checking these things can be crucial. It would be devastating to show up and not have a memory card. Not only is it highly unprofessional but you would lose precious shooting time.

3. Use a telephoto lens – When I shoot an event my 70-200 2.8 lens is on my camera 90 percent of the time. A telephoto lens allows you to shoot the close ups of speakers etc. without blocking anyones view or seeming obnoxious. The images you can get from the back of the room are phenomenal and best of all people won’t remember you taking them.

4. Group Photos – Taking a photo with a large group is not an easy feat. To get a good photo it does require a lot of planning. You can set up bleachers and lights a get a great group shot! What if however, like me at the event I shot below it is something they asked as an afterthought and they only wanted to spend 5 minutes on it. It was a huge group of about 100 people. (just to make my job easier ;). After organizing everyone by colour and arranging people as much as possible to see their faces my wide angle lens could get the whole group in there. You can see this in the bottom photo. But look how small and distorted the group looks. So I had a thought to shoot it as a panorama. The top image you can see is the panorama. I took it in 4 shots and put it together in post. The image as a condensed look that brings the subject closer to the viewer. Much more pleasing result!

5. Edit in Batches – When you give your images to your client you want to have a cohesive look. A very easy way to do this is to sync your photos edited settings in Lightroom. That way the white balance will be the same and things like contrast and exposure will not vary too much. After they are all synced you can go through and make little tweaks if one image needs to be a bit brighter etc. But overall they will maintain a cohesive look that is very professional!
Good luck to anyone shooting an event! Let me know if you have any other tips in the comments below!

Courtney