Thursday, June 25, 2009

Shooting an Event

Slides posted from last week's MYT Photography class below:



I included 3 different types of events as examples:

1) overnight group event (slide 2 and on)
2) smaller group evening event (slide 79 and on)
3) large event like Gracepoint Live (slide 91 and on)

Also there's pointers on how to shoot classroom settings (slide 59 on) as well as how to deal with common obstruction difficulties such as a pillar being in the way.

Some of the pictures I used in the slides are from the Official White House Photostream (found site via Kevan's post). Its very interesting to find out all the exposure information (shutter speed, aperture, ISO setting) for each picture, the lens choice and focal length, whether flash was used, etc. (See slides from Exposure class). From what I can tell, this White House official photographer only uses prime lens (prime = non-zoom) such as 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 135mm with a very large maximum aperture. To find out all this info, click on the "More properties" link when you get to flickr. You can learn a lot by seeing how this photographer (Pete Souza) composes his pictures, what he decides to leave in, and how he deals with objects that are in the way, etc. Highly instructive!

Further reading:
11 Tips for Better Candid Photography

5 comments:

  1. Hi I read the tips for better Candid photography. I was wondering if you could please elaborate more on shooting from the hip.

    thanks!

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  2. Hi Winnie,
    The point of shooting from the hip is keep your subject from knowing that you're shooting them. Inevitably, if they see your camera, then it's no longer as candid, so it's to prevent that.

    So basically it's taking your shot with the camera not up at eye level but around your hip area (ergo "shooting from the hip"). It would seem like you're only holding your camera there, but you'd actually be taking a picture. It's basically a guessing game as you are hoping you get the picture you need. You may have to take multiple pictures to get the right composition, but that's okay for digital cameras.

    I use this method when I happen to see something I think would make a great candid picture and I either don't have time to get it up to my eyes to check composition and then shoot or if me moving that much would distract or get the attention of who I'm trying to take the picture of.

    ...and it does take some practice haha. I think John Ko does this a lot

    Hope that helps!

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  3. yeah, its an interesting way 'shooting from the hip' - I guess it came from the old western movies when the gunslingers would fire one off right from their holster hanging near the hip. practically speaking for me, its usually from the chest area just because that's where I usually hold my camera when I'm moving around.

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  4. One tip when shooting for a large event and working with others is to compare your WBs. Sometimes it can be very different and if you're going to consolidate your photos, it would be nice if they were consistent.

    Also, work with each other on what angles your gonna cover, different areas, etc. I shot GLive with Nelson and Dennis and it was good to know that my shots were covered.

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  5. thanks eileen for your input. that's really true re: white balance. What we did last time for Gracepoint Live (GLive) was the 3 of us all white balanced to the same light at the same time just prior to the start.

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