Hi, so I’ve spent some time thinking about what sort of content to put on this site and in the end decided to write it as if I’m writing a how-to guide for someone who knows nothing about commercial conferences, let alone shooting them.
Obviously there are several reasons for this.
Firstly because I occasionally work with other freelancers if the event is particularly large or I’m double booked, and especially in the latter case I need them to operate in a certain way.
Secondly this is the modern world, and I need content. Content to convince you, target market, that I know what I’m doing (or at least that I give it a lot of thought)
Thirdly it’s been fun to write down, codify what I do, hopefully it makes sense.
So…fellow hybrid shooter (I don’t like that phrase, but I really want to get this page finished, so I’ll come back to it) some thoughts in no particular order:
- When you first arrive, check in with the person who booked you, then check in with the AV company (usually to be found at the back of the conference room). Be nice to them, they have screwdrivers and batteries. Also they sometimes know the refresh rate of their projectors which will save you working it out by trial and error.
- In case you’re wondering…1/100 f3.6 3200 ISO. Probably. Start at 1600 and see how you get on. Point is you’ll be working in a rapidly changing environment with no control over the lighting. If you’re primarily a studio or portrait photographer, this may throw you, but if you’ve spent most of your career in weddings and gigs then you’ll be fine. Shooting a conference properly is like a combination of those.
- I work to a shooting ratio of about 10 to one, and that’s after a decade of shooting this stuff for a living. I have no idea how typical that is.
- Avoid empty space, stuff every corner of the shot with people.
- We do not mess with the mise en scene, don’t shoot it if it isn’t real. Authenticity is everything. If you missed that handshake or business card exchange, you missed it – there’s no value in stock, people know real when they see it and it matters. (And this is only going to get more true moving forward!)
- Never shoot people eating – no-one looks good eating, and if you get caught they’ll be cross.
- Eat when the delegates eat, but always wait until almost all of them are fed first.
- Avoid shots of empty seats at all costs.
- No single people, always people talking to people. Unless they’re reading the show guide.
- Don’t sweat the technicals too much, we’re not shooting for broadcast. Having said that I spend my life recovering blown highlights, correcting exposure, and can’t seem to maintain a consistent colour scheme from one shot to the next, so don’t listen to me.
- Be gentle with yourself, what you’re doing is hard – other people get to work in studios with 100% control over lighting and subject, we don’t.
