A majority of events will be held indoors, in dark rooms or exhibition halls and even though the lack of natural light can be solved with a flash and tripod, it doesn’t mean the images will come out as expected.

Low light photography can be difficult to learn and combat when out at an event, as a different number of light sources, mirrored disco balls and LED lights can be shining light around the room. It can be very tricky to get it right and even when you think you’ve done it all correctly, you may find that the photos didn’t come out as you had hoped – sometimes for the better, or usually worse. Add a dancefloor or moving people to the  equation and you have yourself a really tricky situation to capture great images.

Event photography whether photographing speakers, dancers or bands on stage usually have the same difficulties and challenges. There are key moments to capture and also a range of challenges to watch out for such as lights from the background pointed towards you.

Photographing Speakers

The less challenging of the 3, are speakers at a lecturn as the usually won’t move away from the lecturn. There are no moving lights across the stage and it is usually well lit from yellow hot lights from the ceiling. If you are worried about colour balance then it’s a good idea to shoot a grey card before the event starts to setup your custom white balance. Here are a few points to remember:

  • Try and use a tripod or monopod when possible, otherwise leaning against a wall with your arm tucked into your body
  • Position yourself as close or under a light that is pointing to the subject you are photograping
  • To capture a sharp image, increase your ISO and try not to shoot under 1/125th or 1/100th
  • Shoot in RAW, it will give you more control when post processing
  • Timing of speakers is important, after a few minutes you will be able to spot when the speaker is about to move or make hand gestures

Dancers, Bands & Moving Subjects

When photographing dancers, bands or people on the dancefloor you can find that the lighting will be changing constantly, reds, greens, blues moving left to right and one second the light is there and the next is gone. So, what can you do?

Burst mode to the rescue! If you are lucky enough, there will be enough light on stage to photograph people on stage with the available lighting and hopefully the lighting director hasn’t decided to point any lights in your direction from the back of the stage. So, high ISO, wide aperture and a reasonable fast shutter speed to stop movement. If there isn’t enough light however, you might have to use a speedlight on camera or maybe just off camera to freeze the action with the flash. The white balance in this circumstances is probably the last thing you want to worry about as the different stage lights will continue to change during the enitre set.

When it’s time to capture people dancing, a great trick is to slow the shutter down and use the flash to freeze your subjects. There will be some blurring due to movement but it simply adds to the happy mood of people dancing.

It’s not about the Gear…

Alot of people will say “it’s not about the gear but how you use it“. That is true to some extent, however when shooting in low light it the right gear will go a long way. A DSLR which can handle noise well at high ISOs, such as a Canon 1d Mk IV, will give a better picture then a bottom range DSLR such as the Canon 400D. But without a lense that can handle a wide aperture then you will find it really dificult to get a decent photo without flash.

A basic kit to take to events would consist of 2 primary lenses such as the 70-200mm f/2.8 and 24-70mm f/2.8 which handle pretty well in low light.