 marci D. |
Photographing Awards Ceremony - How to Light? Hi! I am going to be photographing an awards ceremony in a horribly lit, high-ceiling auditorium. Each recipient will walk across the stage, and pose with our CEO and Nursing VP for the shot. There is nothing to bounce the flash off of, so it will be direct. Should I just go with on-camera flash (we have the Nikon SB-900) or should I set up a little portrait station with off-camera flash? What would you do? I am shooting with the Nikon D40 which is very limited in ISO performance and the Nikkor 18-135 f/3.5-5.6 lens. I have seen lovely event photography, what's the secret? Thanks in advance for any advice! :)
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Mark Feldstein |
Howdy Marci. First, you should start by swinging over to Photo Net and reading this link: Then, consider getting an on-camera softbox or diffuser for your flash/camera rig but you need to practice with it a bit before you use it on a real gig. The third thing to know is there aren't any secrets to low-light or event photography. Like other event work, if you're not doing it all the time then you need to plan it pretty carefully. For example, you should know where to position yourself during different phases of the ceremony and whether your lens will work effectively to capture the subject given your position. The other key is to know how to balance your lighting between ambient light of the venue and fill flash from your strobe. For that, assuming you meant a Nikon SB800, read the two manuals that came with the unit. The most useful knowledge in that respect is knowing how to either use a separate hand-held meter like a Gossen Luna Pro or Luna Six, or know how to use your built-in meter to get ambient readings of your subject and then fill them with a bit of flash. In either respect, the Nikon Manuals are pretty useful reading.
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W. Smith VIII |
I'd get 2 more flash guns, set them up on tripods to your left and your right, slave them, and use a 3rd flash gun on-camera. That way you'll have plenty light from all sides (filled shadows) on the trios. Of course the background will be very dark. I'd shoot in manual mode, so I'd do test shots beforehand and chimp to find out what the setting should be. Have fun!
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marci D. |
Thanks for your responses!
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