Plenary

The first thing to get, once everyone is sat down, is some BIG wide shots of the room. You can do these as composites

Or single shots

The important thing is to get these as early as possible in the day to ensure the room is as full as it’s going to be!

Conference lighting is a nightmare. The venue will have house lights, possibly also a big picture window, and the AV company will bring theirs. And then there’s the projector… It isn’t unusual for all of these to be operating at the same time, casting their light on your subjects.

I shoot in RAW and recolour in Lightroom to get the flesh tones as un-alien looking as possible!

The bloody projector

A lot of the events you shoot will be as the big blue and green wide shot above – with a stage constructed in front of the rear wall with a cavity behind it for a projector and a massive quantity of cabling. (Never, never go in here btw, using it as a through way from left of stage to right of stage is like playing Russian roulette with thousands of pounds of tech, in the dark.) This is rear projecting, and is THE WAY.

However, a lot of the events you shoot will be front projected.This sucks. Even if the projector is ceiling mounted, there’s a strong chance you’ll be encountering this:

Which sucks. If you can find a way out of that, let me know, cos I havent. If the front-projector isn’t ceiling mounted, it may well be mounted on a little table near the front of the stage, which is really special, and adds a little frisson of trip hazard.

Either way, you’ll have to work out which shutter speed will render the projected image properly, by trial and error. (I live on 1/100, f3.5 and 3200 ISO)

Anyway…

Speakers – standalone

For every speaker on stage, I like to submit at least

One landscape

One portrait

One wide, with context. (The context being “There are lots of people listening to the speaker”!)

Even wider also welcome.

Speakers should ideally be shot actually speaking, preferably in an animated fashion. Some speakers however, will walk up to the podium, cling on to the podium like they’re driving a tractor, and never let go. (fair enough, it’s pretty scary) If this is the case, bag a few shots so you know you’ve got it covered, then wait until the Q&A at the end when they’ll probably open up a bit.

As usual, event branding being in shot is important, but it’s also important to submit photos where the speaker looks EPIC. If they look EPIC they’re more likely to share it on social media, which means your client’s event is being shared, alongside the perceived endorsement of a (probably) buyside speaker.And this is good.

Speakers – panels

I like to get a shot of every panel member in action, whether it’s simple tight portrait…

Or a wider landscpe with other panel members listening to their sage wisdom.

I do this a lot, the podium branding is on the edge of the shot, i like it but it isn’t compulsory!

At the beginning of each panel, there will be a bit where each of the panel members introduces themselves. This is a good chance to get coverage of each speaker speaking, then regard the rest of the panel as a chance to get better shots as the panel members loosen up a bit over time.

Audience

Audience members must look engaged, sounds obvious but there’s sometimes a thin line between looking engaged and looking bored! Engaged means looking at the screen, taking notes, laughing, taking a photo of the screen with their phone, stuff like that.

A delegates fear is that they’re going to be trapped sitting through endless dull presentations, so including shots that suggest the presentations are not boring, but are worth taking notes/pictures of, asking questions of, and/or that there is some variety of format throughout the day is essential.

Nothing says “engaged” like taking a photo of the screen! The other reason I love this one is the guy in the foreground is both paying attention and holding a pen, which means he’s taking notes…

SO ENGAGED!

Laughing is clearly the best thing to capture, especially when it’s as widspread as it is here.

Q&A is your chance to get the best audience photos of all – when they’re asking questions, I love these.Every shoot needs some of these in both stills and video.

Just going to throw another one in because I love them so much…BUT the empty seats in this one make it less that ideal, avoid EVER showing empty seats!

Yes, it is very dark, but shots of people taking notes are great.