Event Photography: How to Photograph a Speaker on Stage 

Yes, I'd really like to make a video dedicated to this. My body hurts a lot less from photography these days; I think I might have some helpful tips for people.

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Thanks!

Thanks, Jon.

You gonna make it to my premiere tomorrow?

You bet!

Your name makes so much more sense to me now.

Haha I’m glad. I really need to incorporate that into my channel more.

My pleasure!

Thank you. I do my best to fill a niche on RU-vid. I appreciate you subscribing!

Short answer: nothing changes. I work in the same way. That's because... long answer: I work very hard at not being obtrusive in general. I employ many techniques and strategies to do so, including: memorizing my focal lengths and pre-visualizing my shots so that I can quickly get into position, get the shot, and move on. If waiting for the decisive moment, while in said position, not lingering longer than 1 minute. If the person I am photographing is not giving me a decisive moment that I need from that angle, I take a knee. I either shoot from that position if I have a clear field of view or just to get out of the way for a few seconds (I've developed a sense for when something is about to happen and can quickly spring into a shooting stance. Those are a few things that come to mind at the moment. I've made a few videos on how to go unnoticed as a photographer and some of my videos on candid photography should be relevant. You can find those in my event photography playlist. I hope I was able to answer your question and if not, that those videos help.

24-70 f2.8

Thanks for watching

1.) These days, never. I have not had to rely on flash since the old 5d Classic days. That camera's ISO limitations were too great. Sometimes I do use a flash for the audience but try to make due with available light before I consider it. Flash is typically tough in a lot of halls (ceilings are typically painted black). 2.) I have never had that situation happen to me. But this is probably how I would attempt to tackle it, in order: -push the limits of what my gear and body can do AKA open my aperture has much as I can, use as slow a shutter speed as I can get away with. Although I have a 135mm f2 lens, I speculate that my rf 70-200 would be the best option for this with its stabilization. -bounce my flash off of a corner if possible. If everything is painted black and I came prepared I would... - set up an external flash or two pointed at the stage. But I believe in minimal setups and this would be a last resort. 3.) This would be a lot to write out but I have discussed it in some of my live feeds if you're willing to watch those. But more or less you got it right.

It's not common, but with this particular client, I shoot in jpeg and raw. I hand off the jpegs as soon as I finish the job and upload the raw files at home just In case.

I used a cheap little Yi cam for this video. Basically a cheaper gopro. I mounted it using a hotshoe adapter.

Hey Vaughn, Whenever possible I I use existing the stage lights, as was the case in this video.

Hey Bruce, in an increasingly competitive industry, my goal right now is to add value in order to maintain a premium rate. I'm still work shopping my ideas but I'll let you know what I come up with in the future.

I likely left it on evaluative. I don't find a need to change how I meter from situation to situation especially when shooting something consistent and in manual since I can easily make an adjustment after my first shot.

I did not use flash at this event. I pretty much have not used flash to light a speaker on a stage like this since I used the original 5d. 1/125 f2.8 ISO1250 are the settings I used to get a proper exposure, using the light I had available. One thing to keep in mind is that if your camera or lens does not have stabilization, and you're using a telephoto lens, that 125th may be too slow.

@@MikMilman thank you so much for answering

It can't hurt to try it out.

I have a client that really only wants jpegs from me, day of the event. When the colors are a bit garish, I desaturate my jpegs a bit. I still shoot in raw and save to a second card btw. Another option is to use your flash for some fill. That would tone down the colors a bit. Lastly, you could experiment with dialing in your white balance to adjust for the blue and purple. I'm not familiar with other brands, but you can set a custom white balance with canon cameras. I haven't played with it I'm a while but you would essentially take a picture of something white I'm an area you're going to be photographing and use it to adjust. Might be worth looking into. Post is easier but a lot more for me to write out at the moment!

@@MikMilman Coo, much appreciated. The custom white balance definitely skipped my mind as I normally do that when shooting with my video camera.

Now that I'm in front of a keyboard... Adjusting this in LR should be as simple as adjusting the saturation and maybe toying with the luminance of just the blue tones, no?

@@MikMilman Coo, will work on the raw file with your suggestion.

@@MikMilman Getting back with your suggestion with the work in Post. Definitely helped calm down those lights. Now just a little more tweaking and I'll have my XMP set to go. Thanks again for your help. Much success to you Mik.

lol nm, just got to the part where you answered..

What did I say? 😅

@@MikMilman people know you’re doing your job and it’s only few minutes. Get your shot. lol. ✍️✍️✍️

One thing I do, if I know I'll be in one spot for a bit, is take a knee and pop up once what I'm looking for is about to happen.

I have a messenger bag that I added compartments to from a dedicated photo bag. I also have a much smaller photo bag for when I need less gear. but another thing I often do is just use two camera bodies even if the second body is just a fancy lens holder.

In those instances when you use two camera bodies, are they each on their own camera strap, or on something like a Moneymaker/Spider Holster?

I just use straps. I've been curious about other set ups but simply haven't gotten around to trying any out.

By the way in all my years doing this, there was only one time I would not have felt ok leaving my gear somewhere, and I happen to have an assistant doing live edits that was stationed by my gear so it worked out

Hey Tom, hoping you can make it to my premiere tomorrow. I'll be able to answer all your questions live.

Usually I just shoot on two cards - one in JPEG - and give the card with JPEG files to someone with a laptop.

1000 - 1250 ISO typically

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I hope it wasn't really that bad.

​@@MikMilman it wasn't