Do you need to shoot an event? A conference? Meetings? Even if you are not a paid photographer for some event, are you just the one folks turn to for that spur of the moment shot of a guest speaker that nobody guessed would be as good as he was?
Here are some tips, gleaned both from experience and a podcast which inspired me to write this stuff down. It has been so long since I have listened to the show, I cannot remember what from my notes was the guest’s idea and what was mine.The podcast was the Digital Photography Show and the guest was James Duncan Davidson. Well, I think it was him, but for the life of me, I cannot find the podcast I listened to in any archives. Anyway, the photographer in question has a lot more experience than I do, but I can attest to each of these points in my own experience.
First, the settings. Do yourself a favor: shoot raw. Many of you will wonder why I should even mention it because you always do anyway…just tune out for a paragraph, then. You will run into wildly different light sources, and raw will give you the latitude you need to very easily change the color temperature back to what it should be. Well, there are more reasons to use raw, but color temperature is a big one.
When you need to photograph speakers, here are some specifics. You will often be shooting in fairly dim situations and need high ISO to get shutter speeds up to 1/125 to 1/250 (we will get to aperture in a minute). You will need as fast as possible. What you will find is that photos look out of focus, but really they are just slightly blurry. I know, these are not high action shots, but especially in the lips, you have to be able to freeze the action. Some speakers are harder than others; you have to acclimate to the speaker.
And this is certainly no place for that f/3.5 – f/4.5 kit lens! You need fast glass, baby! Canon, Nikon, and I am sure the other manufacturers as well, have cheap 50mm f/1.8 lenses. You will learn to love ’em, I promise. I have a friend who bought a 50mm f/1.8 and now rarely ever puts his kit lens on the camera. You get really used to that extra stop or two of light…think of it, two times the light! In any case, you will be constantly frustrated with your photos with anything less than f/2.8. Even then, you will be riding at the very edge of your equipment’s capability.
Have your flash ready, but do remember how incredibly distracting it will be. You better let the speaker know…that might not be a nice surprise: speakers kind of need the audience’s attention. If you do use flash, it is best to shoot some test shots before hand so you know right where it needs to be set. In other words, get it right the first time.
And think through the kinds of shots you will need to take. Marketing people want crowd and conversation shots. PR and news folks want shots of keynote speakers. You can figure it out for your situation, just make sure and think it through.
And if you really want to put a smile on their faces, find a way to run a slide show or something on site. The audience would love to see those photos; that is the only way most people will ever see them. A good example is running a slide show of photos from a wedding ceremony at the reception. If you truly have a unique vision, you will have a perspective on the wedding that nobody really noticed.
And by all means, get experience just shooting around at your next conference. It is ok to be a photo junkie. Have fun. Play with perspective. Find something nobody else saw.
I certainly wan to give a special thanks to the original photographer and the hosts of the podcast for the ideas in this post.
