Need critique and tips on shoot of a political visit

[Rich Gibson]

Some of you may recall I was tapped to shoot a visit of some congressmen last week. I've posted them here:

http://www.pbase.com/richard_gibson/inbox

For those of you experienced with shooting events of this type I'd appreciate suggestions/critiques. I'm aware of my slips in not swapping the flash and getting the horizontal shadows, and other stuff (for example there were fluorescent lights and incandescent in the same room. I'm most interested specific suggestions where possible

Thanks very much.
Rich

 

[bendheim]

Rich, just three brief things..
Get up real close and personal if you can...I mean real close. Crop much tighter in the viewfinder
Look for unusual angles and perspectives.
..and, less is sometimes more.

Doing events like this is an awful job. Chat to whoever asked you in first to get want you want to do established. I don't envy you doing this stuff. But think US election campaign trail shots...intimate, close, etc. Natural light when at all possible.

Sorry if this isn't too specific.

Best

Peter

 

[Rich Gibson]

Rich, just three brief things..
Get up real close and personal if you can...I mean real close. Crop much tighter in the viewfinder
Look for unusual angles and perspectives.
..and, less is sometimes more.

Doing events like this is an awful job. Chat to whoever asked you in first to get want you want to do established. I don't envy you doing this stuff. But think US election campaign trail shots...intimate, close, etc. Natural light when at all possible.

Sorry if this isn't too specific.

Best

Peter

No, this is fine. Now that I look at the shots on PBase many of the people in the scene's look too tiny. So...it looks like primes might not be the best under some circumstances especially when I'm shooting the D2H to capture the "right" moment. You can't crop too much with the D2H. I was trying out the 85mm f/1.4 but couldn't get close enough.

Since a lot of the shots were the meeting I figured too many flash's and they'd get annoyed. So I tried a balance between a fast prime and a 24-85 f/2.8 zoom and flash.

If I had to do this tomorrow I'd use my frame with the SB800 raised high and the 70-200VR f/2.8.

Thanks very much, you got me thinking. Actually this kind of shooting gets my creative juices flowing.

Rich