There is a tasteless misconception that event photography is a soft option, something that can be done part-time to earn some easy extra cash on the side. The reality, of course, is very distinct and there is a great deal more to this sector than some might imagine, both in terms of the preparation that is required to deliver a potential corollary often under essential time pressure and also the venture required, both in time and money. Walk blind into this area at any level and you risk not only your own hereafter in the event business but also that of other photographers, who might lose jobs on the back of event organisers losing faith in the end product.
The purpose of this piece is not to discourage any photographer from seeing at the potential of event coverage but to give them an honest guide as to what is required to make a success of event photography. There are a number of distinct levels at which you can operate and the requirements are distinct for each of them, but it is potential to move into event photography in a fairly low key way and then build up your involvement if things are working out well. This in turn ensures that it's not essential to make a full commitment from day one if you want to take things more slowly.
Wireless Printer Setup
There are 3 things that you can do to prepare yourself for events;
You could join a reputable organisation such as the Event Photographer Society
You could get training from professional event photographers
Read this article
What you need
The first thing that any event photographer should have in place before walking out of their front door is insurance. It's crucial - and legally required - to safe yourself and your customers, and to make sure that you don't come to be a victim of the current litigious society you need to speak to an assurance master about the likes of collective Liability Insurance, tool cover and any other essentials.
The second thing you need to think about early on is a website to enable you to sell images after the event. This is by no means your only route to market but it's a crucial way to maximise your sales and to give your business visibility. However, in my plan the best way to sell is still to offer prints on the spot, because this will be the time when population are in the mood to buy a print and they will gift a relatively easy sell. It's also very clean and efficient, with sales being dealt with on the spot and nothing to corollary up, and the money you can take on the night is great for cash flow!
This takes you into the realm of small, transported dye-sub printers of procedure and there are some to choose from which is something that I covered when I wrote an article for Photo Pro in August 2009. In brief you need to make a buying decision based on speed, reliability and weight - don't just buy a stock based on its price tag - and it's worth request other professionals which kit they personally use and then basing a buying decision on which gear sounds best suited to your private requirements. I will write a added article on this soon as there are some verily nice new models that have appeared since then such as the Dnp Ds40 and Dnp Ds80.
One of your major considerations in terms of what kit you might need will be the area of event photography that you choose to go into. Commonly there are two avenues you can explore: collective events and sporting events, with some photographers, such as myself, working across both areas. Sporting events can be split down still added into outdoor and indoor locations, while collective covers any event that requires a studio setup.
Those seeing to work in collective event photography will commonly have distinct camera considerations, and they advantage from the fact that they don't need to opt for something which is top of the range. If you're commonly outside black tie events, for example, then you should be seeing to keep file sizes down to about 1.5Mb, and for this a good potential 6 megapixel camera will deliver what is required to enable printing on-site of 12x8ins images and bigger sizes from web sales. You can all the time buy a more suited camera of procedure and shoot at lower than optimum resolution, but this might not be your most cost-effective solution.
For sporting events you need to look at more specialised gear and here the most essential thing you will need to invest in will be good quality, fast lenses. The usual beginning point is going to be something like a 70-200mm f/2.8 to enable you to get the desired shutter speeds but also to have the wide apertures available to put the background out of focus. Other things to look at are camera hoods (rain jackets) to safe the camera from bad weather.
Many novices will try to use a burst of images to capture the peak of the action but in reality this means you are more likely to miss the shot that sells. It is prominent to understand the sport you are outside and be able to predict when and where to take the shot. Once you have mastered this you can start to understand when a burst of images may be needed, such as capturing a rider falling from their horse - yes they like those images as well! Most Dslrs these days come with a decent fps rate so this is a function you will probably have to hand.
On-Site
Working on location you encounter what might be the biggest cost of all: the need to have chamber for yourself and your team plus your printers and power to run everything. Essentially the cover issue can be solved in one of three ways; a marquee, a trailer fit or a van fit. The issue with a marquee is that all the tool has to be set up each time whereas as with the van or trailer it is a easy matter of connecting to the power and switching on.
The power issue can be tackled with batteries but this is not easy and the beloved selection is a generator. Care needs to taken to take one that has a garage voltage (there have been a number of instances where printers do not function correctly when used with generators) which commonly means seeing for a term like 'pure sine wave' or 'inverter technology'. There is a added complication that some event hosts will not let you on site with petrol generators, so a good selection is to look for an Lpg converted generator, with the generator of selection being a Honda Eu20i.
Moving indoors as a sports photographer you still need those fast lenses but now the low light levels come into corollary and it is here that many of the lower end cameras verily struggle. Imagine shooting an indoor equestrian event in November - you have mixed lighting and verily need to be able to perform shutter speeds of 1/640sec or faster. You are now seeing at having to up your Iso levels to 5000 or maybe higher, and this is a specialised area if you are still seeing for good, usable results. For me this meant the purchase of a Nikon D700; a big venture for sure, but it's prominent to buy once and to buy right, and I knew that was what I needed. The cost doesn't stop there, and the use of very fast f/1.4 and f/1.8 lenses can help you not just to get an image but also to focus in low light. Using a flashgun with many indoor events such as equestrian is liable to see you set upon by a group of pony club mums - best avoided at all costs.
Lighting
If you're working in the collective area you will probably need to invest in reliable lighting - you will never have two setups that are the same and will have to learn to work within the space available. Remember that what you are providing is a mobile studio setup, so you will need backgrounds and stands. As you are using electrical tool you will also need to make sure that you have this Pat tested (look at http://www.pat-testing.info/legal.htm for the legal requirements).
A good potential light meter will help you to get the light levels right, but one question you might not expect is the tendency for the lights to reflect back from walls and to potentially generate colour casts. In my plan it is essential to all the time carry out a practice white balance, and this is the second thing I do after adjusting the lights. Personally I use the Lastolite ezybalance and it takes 30 seconds to ensure someone else aspect of providing a potential image to the customer has been covered. A quick test shot at this stage should give you a clean image at the printer and you are ready to take on your first client.
Two prominent issues for the collective event photographer to think are how to trigger the lights and also how to physically get the image files from the camera over to the printer generating prints for sale. Both areas come with an selection to use cables, either to link the tool or to tether the camera, but in a busy situation you are then introducing trip hazards and it will also restrict where you can verily move with the camera. I do take cables with me on a job but they are kept in the box just in case of emergencies - as an event photographer you do need to be covered for every eventuality because as the event photographers' mantra goes 'the only image you can't sell is the one you don't take'.
In terms of studio flashes, an alternative way to fire them is via an infra-red light trigger, but these can be temperamental and you do need to be able to react to a situation if things go wrong. For example, at one Christmas event I encountered a novelty toy reindeer which was spinning around and bucking away with a big red flashing nose, and this was continually setting off the studio flash! Some Gaffa tape to cover the offending part did the trick but it gave me a few hairy moments. I now use a wireless law and it's proved very reliable and safe in operation.
Wireless Transfer
In terms of sending files back to base, you could swap cards on the camera and pass them back to the sales point but I do wonder what would happen if you took your camera to be repaired under warranty because the card pins were bent, and then had to clarify that it had just had some light use i.e. 100 card swaps a night for a hundred nights in the year. There are now viable alternatives as we enter the era of reliable and sufficient Wi-Fi along with Sd memory cards set up to be Wi-Fi enabled to bring the entry level price of this technology down to very manageable levels.
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