Hi all,
I don’t know about you, but I’ve always struggled to take good photos of events. They’re often unpredictable, never repeatable, and always unique. However, they are markers in the life of your ministry, non-profit or missionary work. Here are some tips to help you take better photos of your events.
1) Tell a story
There’s always a reason for an event, but not everything that happens at an event is the story of the event. Know the story you’re going to tell. If you’re opening a new buiding at an orphanage, then your story is probably going to be about kids going crazy with joy. Empty rooms and hallways aren’t going to tell that story very well. But kids running down the hall while yelling at the top of their lungs will.
2) Start wide, then move in close
Start by taking photos that set the context for the event. Using our orphanage example, you might want to get a shot of all the kids lined up outside the building jumping into the air. Once you get the context, then you can move in closer to show smaller parts of the story – like a child laying on their new bed or putting their clothes in a drawer.
3) Look for unusual angles
Eye level shots are often boring. Instead, get up high or stoop down low. Get on top of a bunkbed and shoot kids coming through the door. Get low on the ground as they’re running down the hall. Take photos from the perspective of a child. Get on your back and shoot up as a child looks down at you from their bed. The possibilities are endless.
4) Photograph people doing things
Bored people make for boring shots. Find people who are engrossed in an activity. It’ll bring the story and their personality to life. You’ll get much better photos if you wait until they forget that you’re taking photos and start acting naturally. Which brings me to…
5) Unpose your posed shots
A great trick to add some naturalness to posed group shots is to take another photo right after the posed photo. This works incredibly well with kids – they tend to provide super-cheeseball smiles when their posed, but then laugh when they’re done. Adults are more likely to be reserved while they’re posing, but they too will start to relax if they think the photo is over.
6) Avoid your flash
The flashes on compact cameras create flat, washed out images. Avoid them as much as you can. Instead, turn up the ISO, slow down your shutter, and open up your aperture in order to make the most of the light that’s available in the room. You can’t always do this and still get decent shots that aren’t blurred or grainy, but it’s worth trying.
No doubt about it, events can be a real challenge. This is one of those times when gear really becomes a limiting factor – it is genuinely hard to get great photos of people in dim lighting with a compact camera. But these tips will help you take photos that will connect your followers with your story.
Know some tips that have helped you take better event photos? Feel free to share them below.