6 Event Photography tips to shoot better Photos / Videos

Shooting events comes with a different set of challenges and the biggest challenge of all is the fact you will never get a second chance. You gotta nail the clips and photos at first time when comes to event photography. But these challenges can be tackled if you are prepared for it, So i have compiled five tips that will help you to get prepared for shooting events.

1. Be an early bird – Reach the venue early

Being a photographer for covering an event, reaching the venue late can turn out to be a nightmare. Reaching the venue on time is good, but being there early is totally great.
I can list quite a number of benefits of being an early bird.-

1. You get to understand your shooting space.
2. Time to plan your shots.
3. You get to shoot the beauty of the venue, its empty space and its ambiance which gives you a great advantage from the point of storytelling be it photos or videos
4. You’ll get ample amount of time to get prepared for a successful shoot.

2. Get Personal – Speak with event hosts / coordinators

Get in touch with the event hosts/ coordinators to get a clear picture of the event proceedings. This understanding is very necessary and will help you to be spot on without missing any important moment. Also you can work out ideas to shoot event better.

I usually speak with the event hosts to know some key moments. This will help me to be aware of those key moments and not miss them. When you cover an event am sure you will get plenty of shots of the celebration, friends and family. However when you deliver the work to clients they would definitely love to see a bunch of personal shots. So take time out with event hosts and ask them for permission to shoot the ‘Special person of the day’ in individual or along with their loved ones . This will make your work stand out.

3. Stay organized

Get yourself organized and be a responsible photographer. Shooting events can itself be a challenging task, if you are going to be that solo person covering an event – then challenges may come in a bunch of different ways.

You will definitely carry a variety of camera gears like lenses, flashes, modifiers etc., and then there are huge chances of your gears might go missing or get damaged. It had occurred to me in the past ,so speak with event hosts and get a place allocated for you to have your gears – which shouldn’t be a disturbance to the event, audience, hosts or others disturb your gears.

Always ensure you carry all the backup options with you
1. Extra memory card.
2. Laptop/ Hard disk to take backup of your work whenever possible.
3. Additional battery for your cameras, mics etc.

Don’t step out to shoot without carrying backup options.

4. Never disturb the Event:

I personally know the enthusiasm a photographer gets when he / she picks up the camera. This should not make you look like a disturbance to the guests. I have noticed photographers who disturb the event to get their shot. Never, ever do that. Your client would never want the event disturbed even for top notch photos. And you should also not compromise on the quality of photos so look for best place in the venue and shoot the event.

5. Plan your shots:

May be this is the most crucial step a photographer can do. You may be the type of photographer who can work wonders just being on the go. However to some extent having a basic plan in mind will definitely give you an edge and help you to be quick while shooting.

And planning will give you the space to get creative in your work. This will ultimately give your clients great results and you will get A+ for your work.

Another important reason to plan your shots is that events can be bit unpredictable. It can turn pacy all of a sudden and smooth down at another point. So it is necessary that the photographer needs to keep in pace and should be really spontaneous and quick enough to adapt. Always be ready for any surprises that the event may throw at you.

6. Never Miss a thing

A multitude of things tend to happen in an event. apart from the hosts there is unlimited fun and vibrant things going all around you. Try your best to shoot them all. Shoot a lot. Since it is good to be back home having a lots of choices to choose and deliver to your client.

There is a lot of people’s work involved to make an event progress and finish successfully. It will be really good to capture all of it and show a completeness in your photos/videos to your clients.

If possible shoot the work involved in preparing the venue like work of decorators, bakers, chefs, and event managers etc. By getting them all you will have completeness in your output be it a photo/ video am quite sure it will stand out and make the client super happy.

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Hope these tips will help you guys to shoot events in better way. If you got any tip to share leave them in the comment box below, I will make sure to add it in the article. Happy Shooting 🙂