Been asked to photograph an event for work

Kevin Clark

Kevin Clark

Kevin Clark

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Oxford, UK
Every year our whole institute has a day of seminars at a local business school in town.

I've been asked to take some shots of the day :eek: ; our illustrious leader giving his opening address, maybe some candid pics of people discussing presented posters of data, stuff like that.

I've never done anything like that. It's massively out of my comfort zone (and probably skill level). I don't want to look like a noob with no idea while 500 people are looking on.

I have a 16-35mm f2.8 and 24-105mm f4 which would probably cover everything I need. Is it worth me picking up the el cheapo Canon 50mm f1.8 to drop in my pocket? I'm thinking it'll be nicely compact, big aperture in case it's quite dull in there and good enough picture quality.

Or should I just travel light with one lens and hope that covers what I want?

Any advice greatly appreciated before the 19th :).
 
The people will be standing around talking? then take the 24-105 as it has IS. Pointless taking a 50 1.8 if low light is your only concern, as you won't be any better off.
 
People "standing around talking" will still be moving, which will cause blur if you're shooting at low shutter speeds, IS or otherwise.

I'd use a quick prime (35mm on a crop, 50mm on full frame maybe?) so you can keep the shutter speed up without having to increase ISO too much.
 
King Damager said:
What camera? With the 24-105, I tend to find I have to bump ISO quite high to get usable stuff indoors.
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5D3 so I should be ok for ISO and I've got Lightroom4 to clean things up in PP too.

The people will be standing around talking?
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The two main scenarios are
- large steeply raked seminar room with speakers presenting. I think I'll probably only do a picture of my boss opening the day as I know most of the people presenting their work will be nervous enough without wanting to be disturbed by a camera going off. I don't want to interrupt someones flow. The only exception to that is I thought of possibly putting the camera on a car behind/side of the rostrum for the afternoon session and triggering it on a remote for an audience shot but until I get there on the day that's only a guess

- a poster session where people stand around discussing the data on the posters with the writers of the data. So that's likely to be large boards with a couple of people standing in front of them with a coffee in hand, chatting.
 
This is exactly what I do for work, mainly because it gets me away from my desk but also because it's all experience. I don't think about what other people think - I just float around taking pictures of whatever I want to.

Speak to the people organising the event, find out what the plan is for the day, ask them if there's anything you should avoid, like walking in front of the plinth while they're speaking.

The hardest thing I find is avoiding taking pictures of the same people over and over again. I find photographing candid images easy because they should just be there doing their own thing, not paying attention to you.

I tend to bring all my lenses just in case. Set them all up on my table and swap if I need to. So I had my 50mm, my 135mm and my kit lens.
 
Most public speakers will tend to move their arms\hands quite a lot, and also their head\shoulders as it is important to speak to all of the audience and involve them. You might get away with 1/30 for some shots, but you will also get caught out at that speed. With the 5D3 though I'd go for the higher ISO, you'll be able to tweak on the day per each speaker.
 
If you're toting a 5D3 and an L zoom then 99% of the people there aren't going to think you're some noob unless you do something ridiculous, so I'd chill out on that point.

Personally I would crank that ISO up and leave the 24-105 on. It's got a great range and I wouldn't want to be mucking around changing lenses all the time when you've got that zoom at your disposal.

I'd rather have a flash than a 50 1.8.
 
Oh. Get your timing in. I found people blink a lot when I try and take picture of them doing some dramatic hand gesture. I have lots of pictures of people blinking. Seriously. I think it's a talent to take pictures of people exclusively with their eyes closed.
 
Well that was tough and a learning experience all in one.

I ended up taking 275 photos (with my 24-105mm mostly at F4) which I've just finished sifting through on a first sweep and narrowed it down to 75 that are worth a second look and post process/crop which I'll do tomorrow.

The lecture room pictures were so-so. The dim light meant ISO 5000+ for most of the shots. Not helped by my boss never looking at the audience. I also got a couple of shots along the seating lines focussing on one person looking interested which worked out quite well. Pictures of the general audience are really hard because there's always someone in the shot who is looking at you, yawning, drinking a coffee, checking a phone or looking bored stupid.

At the coffee and lunch breaks I mingled for the candid shots trying to get pictures of people 'interacting'. If you're lining up on a group of people standing in a circle, the person whose face you can see tends to spot you and then subtly change what they're doing to either look much less natural or move a little bit so you can't see their face. I soon learnt that if I caught a flick of the eyes in my direction, it wasn't worth carrying on with that group. The room with the posters was quite cramped and not very conducive to good angles but one group of people were happy to pose. Unfortunately there was a bright window behind them and no room for me to stand the other side so I just fired a load of pictures off, also tried some with exposure compensation up a stop to brighten them up and hopefully I can work something out in lightroom with those.

All I really need is 4 or 5 pictures to be usable. Not only will that depend on if they're ok, but if the people in them sign consent forms. I chatted to our admin at one point and she thinks next time they might draw up a form that basically says if you come through the door you're giving consent to be filmed, in order to reduce the hassle.

But thank you for the advice, it was very useful and I learnt a lot for the inevitable 'next time'.
 
With regard to the people changing how they act when they see you, I've noticed that too. I actually found a nifty way around it if the distance is right, you can focus off centre point so it looks like you're looking at something else so they carry on being normal :D

Also I find what works if people are constantly staring at you is to try taking some from the waist height so they don't notice and think you're not doing anything. Obviously it depends on what sort of shot you want as it might not work for a lot of stuff.
 
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What I sometimes do is focus on something else away from the group but with a similar focal point, so then you can just swing the camera around and fire off a few shots without having to focus again, and before they have time to react :p
 
Isn't it kind of between two conflicting styles of photography though?

If you want a more repertoire, documentary feel to your photos, you need to be extremely quick, like a street photographer, shooting before your subjects are even aware you are going to shoot them. So you may have to already have the settings, focal length and focus all locked in. Trying to be sneaky when you are clearly the Photographer doesn't work when you aren't quick enough.

Otherwise you go for proper group portraiture where you engage the subjects, which will result in good photos and them doing what you want.... although it may not be the style you want if you are looking for something more candid.
 
Your issue with people noticing you is exactly why if I'm trying to get candit shots I will use the longest lens I can find and stand well back :)

Some indoor situations - especially less 'architecturally nice' buildings can be total pigs to photograph within. Did an awards night in a little conference room, was really dark so thought 'hey I'll just use some bounce flash' - to find the ceiling was bright RED which resulted in it looking like something out of a horror film. Was direct flash or nothing :(
 
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