Candid Event Photography

Part 2 of 2 –
Continuing on last week’s topic of event lighting, I promised to explain how to light a catering hall, banquet room, etc. in order to capture naturally looking images without aiming the on camera strobe directly at the subject. I don’t want to bore anyone, so I explain it below with generalities. Those who want more details are free to call me. I’ll be glad to help.

First, let me summarize some important points.
1. You never aim the strobe directly at the subject. Whether it’s diffused through some sort of soft box or other means (NEVER).
2. You bounce your on-camera strobe, preferably off a neutral color wall, using your external lights in addition.
3. Keep the shadows. Shadows convey a sense of depth to the face. Remember, your eyes see people as they are – 3 dimensional. The camera sees people as 2 dimensional. The only way to convey the 3rd dimension of depth is to keep/create shadows.

So, let’s say you are in one of these huge banquet rooms and the dance floor is in the middle of room. In order for you to bounce the on camera strobe, that light has to travel a long distance and back to create the shadows. In physics, the inverse square law says that for every additional 1 foot light travels, the intensity of that light drops by 1/4th. You can somewhat compensate for that light loss with other camera settings, but not always. Enter the external light source. That source can be an assistant holding a battery powered light at the desired angle to the subject (usually just above the head at a 45deg angle to the camera.) OR a fixed position light. I prefer the fixed position light and have the subjects either turn until they are in the correct position, or I wait for them to dance into the position I need. All the while the camera focused on them, hence the use of long lenses so that the subject is unaware I’m focused on them and waiting.

I usually set up 2 lights – one on either side of the DJ. And control them remotely with a radio transmitter. That way, I can turn the subject(s) to create the shadows with my external light while the other light is behind them lighting up the dance floor. This is a necessity in order to avoid people with dark hair blending into the background. You want to separate them from the background. You can use a wide aperture to blur the background and make the subject ‘pop’ out of the image.

Take a look at the photos in this blog and see if you can tell where the light source(s) is/are coming from. Also, take a look at the new video entitled Candid Event Photography at right. Notice that the backgrounds are also lit. Click on the “Leave comments” link at the bottom of the blog to tell me what you think. I’d love to hear from you. www.egoziphotography.com

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