When shooting an event, always tell a story. People do not want to just see random images; since Gilgamesh and Homer, people like to hear stories.
In practical terms, for you as a photographer that means:
- Start with an Establishing Shot or two, to establish where the event is taking place
- Make sure that before you present the work to your friends, your relatives, or your client, you arrange (not: shoot) the event in (chrono-) logical sequence. In Lightroom, use a collection, and sort it manually. When exporting, use the sequence number in the export filename, so your sort order is honoured.
- Shoot a “B–roll”, including decorations and food. B-roll pictures are the background. The decorations. The food. The small details. You can shoot those before, during, and sometyimes even after the event.
- Include signs that have names and details of the event.
Let’s look at some examples from the event I co-shot Saturday night. So these are not the event pictures (those feature people); these are the “B-roll shots” that act as glue to keep the people shots together.
These are examples of the kind of shots that make random people pictures into a story your friends or customers want to see. It’s easy, it’s fun.
(All images except the first one: camera on manual; flash on TTL; flash bounced behind me at a dark ceiling, so 1600 ISO was needed to get enough bounce.)