Event Photography

[cardinals1970]

So my wife and I attended a birthday party for some of her family and took my camera along. After getting back home and looking at the pics I got to wondering when doing an event like this what do you look for? Now I know of course you would want shots of the cake and the blowing out of the candles along with the unwrapping of gifts. I guess besides the basics what else do you look for, do you go more for the candid shots, more wide shots or maybe a little of both? One last question would be with an event and you have folks moving around is there something you look for to keep the background from becoming distracting?

Anyway here are 5 from the day that you can C&C if you wish

1.

2.

3.

4.

5. This I will say would have been better with more of his right arm in it but I had a ladies backside blocking the arm but his mom just loved the the shot.

 

[786soul]

As for C&C, you missed the focus on the 2nd one quite apparently. For portraits the eyes are the place you'll want to focus. The 1st looks slightly underexposed.

Being that you mentioned it was more on a whim taking pictures rather than something you'd fully prepared for the shadows were an inevitability outside in that sun. For the future, use a strobe or even the built in flash on the camera to help fill in some light and take the harshness from the sun.

These look like their straight OOC so if you plan to do this more seriously, look at vibrancy/saturation and sharpening images through PPing.

 

[njw1224]

With group event photography, you want to go for human interactions mostly - not so much shots of individual people as you have here. What were the people doing together - talking, laughing, dancing, swimming? Show that.

Always try for backgrounds that aren't distracting, or blur them out with wide apertures if they are distracting.

You always want to keep in mind the story that the series of photos is trying to tell. Are you covering all of the angles of the story? Are you getting shots from interesting vantage points & perspectives. Are your subjects doing something interesting, or do they just look static (images 1, 3, 4)?

Think of yourself as a news reporter covering the event, and use the photojournalism rule of getting a good mix of wide, mid-range, and close shots to tell the whole story in a variety of ways.

 

[cardinals1970]

As for C&C, you missed the focus on the 2nd one quite apparently. For portraits the eyes are the place you'll want to focus. The 1st looks slightly underexposed.

Being that you mentioned it was more on a whim taking pictures rather than something you'd fully prepared for the shadows were an inevitability outside in that sun. For the future, use a strobe or even the built in flash on the camera to help fill in some light and take the harshness from the sun.

These look like their straight OOC so if you plan to do this more seriously, look at vibrancy/saturation and sharpening images through PPing.

Yeah your right the photos were straight OOC. The 2nd I should have left out cause I knew it was OOF but I was just trying to see if I had the right idea for doing an event which I found out I wasn't on the right track.I will probably go back and some PP on some of them just to practice PP.

 

[cardinals1970]

With group event photography, you want to go for human interactions mostly - not so much shots of individual people as you have here. What were the people doing together - talking, laughing, dancing, swimming? Show that.

Always try for backgrounds that aren't distracting, or blur them out with wide apertures if they are distracting.

You always want to keep in mind the story that the series of photos is trying to tell. Are you covering all of the angles of the story? Are you getting shots from interesting vantage points & perspectives. Are your subjects doing something interesting, or do they just look static (images 1, 3, 4)?

Think of yourself as a news reporter covering the event, and use the photojournalism rule of getting a good mix of wide, mid-range, and close shots to tell the whole story in a variety of ways.

Thanks that gives me a better idea.