Last updated on May 19, 2022
Whether you’re a photographer, organizer, or a client for a photoshoot event, you need to carefully do a few things to make sure that it will be successful. If it is your first time, it’s recommended that you familiarize yourself with the following tips.
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Plan and scout the location and familiarize yourself with it
The key to a successful professional photoshoot event is planning. If you’re the photographer, you should identify critical moments you need to capture through a mood board or storyboard. If you’re the organizer, find a photo studio rental for the event or ensure that the on-site location will be picture-worthy. If you’re the client, make sure that the other people involved in the project are prepared.
Remember, the location will dictate almost every aspect of the shoot—lighting, composition, et cetera.
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Take a lot of shots but do it with post-editing in mind
Everything won’t always go according to plan. You might think a particular pose is the best one for your model, but as it turns out, it isn’t. Because of that, you need to take a lot of shots with varying differences.
You may already know this, but most photographers tend to take many photos before they can produce a great one. Thankfully, you shouldn’t worry about costs since everything is digital nowadays and they won’t require you to buy expensive rolls of film.
However, this doesn’t mean that you can click the shutter mindlessly or rely too much on the burst mode function. Remember that the more pictures you take, the longer it will take for you to sort out the good shots from the bad ones, plus there’s also the part where you have to edit each good shot you come across.
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Avoid stiff shots and wait for candid and special moments
Being a professional photographer is a very challenging job. Taking photos in event shoots isn’t exactly as easy as taking travel photos. While you need to take a lot of photos, you can’t just shoot and click all the time as discussed previously. You must put conscious effort into only taking good shots and potentially the best ones. Because of that, it’s always recommended to bid your time and wait for candid and memorable moments.
Aside from preventing yourself from getting stiff and lifeless shots, taking your time to find the best moments can let you save some precious battery life during the shoot. You never know if a great photo moment could happen at the end of an event or a photoshoot, and you’d want to make sure you have your camera to capture that moment.
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Bring a professional makeup artist and let them help you avoid editing
In addition to making your models and clients look good on the frame, a professional makeup artist can significantly help you save a lot of time during post-editing. After all, while you may be a tech wiz and great with touch-ups using a photo editing program, it’s much easier and faster to let an expert deal with blemishes and other imperfections your client doesn’t want to see on their photos even before you take a photo of them.
Since you can spend less time retouching your models’ faces later on, you can spend time editing other things such as the following:
- Editing, replacing or removing backgrounds
- Correcting colors and retouching some areas
- Cropping shots and editing contrast and brightness
- Creating shadows and managing highlights
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Don’t forget about lighting and your light meter
Having good control of lighting is photography 101. Atmosphere, mood, and tone are just a few of the vital things that lighting can dictate in a photoshoot. You need to learn where the light will be coming from during the event and how intense it will be. Will you need lighting equipment to provide the necessary three directions of light?
Don’t forget to always bring a light meter. If you’re new and you don’t have a light meter yet, you can research light meter apps, some of which are downloadable for free.
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Be efficient and bring extra cameras if possible
Time management is always crucial in the photography business. When taking pictures for a client, don’t forget that you will almost always take many photos that will end up on the cutting floor, unused. Because of that, there’s no time for you to experiment with your camera settings on the fly and tinkering with it while the event is already ongoing.
If possible, you need to bring extra cameras that you have presets for different occasions and shots. Aside from sparing you the hassle of adjusting on the fly, extra cameras also mean you don’t have to worry about not being able to take a shot because your current camera ran out of batteries or data storage. This also helps sort out photos later, since shots with certain settings are all stored in different cameras.
Conclusion
Those are the tips you should be aware of if you want to guarantee the success of your photoshoot event. Most of these tips are intended for photographers, but organizers and clients need to be aware of these things to understand the process of photoshoot events better.
