7 Tips for Photographing Events (The ‘Street’ Way)
Reading time: 6 minutes
Recently I went to photograph the Brighton Pride celebrations and I had such a great time - it’s one of my favourite events of the year. It was the first time I photographed it on film and it really got me thinking about how to get the most out of documenting an event with my camera.
Events are perfect places to practice your street photography skills as no one minds their photograph being taken, so you can be bold and get closer than you usually might, especially as a beginner. So in this post I’m going to share my top tips for getting the most out of photographing an event to give you some ideas to capture unique event photos next time you go to one.
1. Get There Early
Top tip number one: get there early. It’s no use rocking up to an event just as it kicks off finding yourself right at the back of the crowds, fighting your way through trying to grab a shot. Getting to an event early means you have time to get your bearings and photograph people getting ready or folks on the way to the festivities. Photographing people getting ready for an event or milling about waiting for the fun to kick off often gives you the chance to capture fun unguarded moments which you wouldn’t have access to if you rocked up later on.
I captured this photo before the Restore Nature Now protest kicked off in central London recently. I went to where everyone was congregating for the parade to start and captured this great little human moment that I wouldn’t have seen if I just focused on the parade.
2. Focus on the Crowds
It can be all too tempting to turn our lens on the colourful main parade of an event but this can often mean we end up with the same long-lens photos of a parade passing by as everyone else. Those photos often lack an emotional or immersive aspect and are best left to the official event photographers getting those kinds of photos for the parade members or smiling attendees to have something to download later for their Instagram feed. Instead my advice is to turn your lens to the crowd, what people are doing in the crowd, or who are milling around at the fringes of the event, can make for far more captivating photos than the event itself. But photos of people watching a parade can often be as uninteresting as photos of the parade itself, so that’s why the next thing is super important too.
I really enjoy the playfulness in this photo - I turned the camera on the crowd, saw someone in an eye-catching outfit and waited for the right moment to snap the shutter.
3. Look For Emotion
We’ve all seen average looking event photos of smiling families and parade marchers, but the best event photos (at least the ones that stick in my mind) are the ones that show some kind of emotion, candidly. If you can use your street skills at an event and still capture unguarded moments of emotion then you have a great chance of making powerful images, though this can be hard when everyone notices you have a camera and wants to pose but you can use this to your advantage. If someone or a group of people want to pose for a photo, then let them, but as soon as they’ve stopped posing and go back to what they’re doing that caught your eye in the first place then that can give you the opportunity to capture it candidly. Look for tender moments of love or joy, or even anger and sadness depending on what kind of event you’re photographing, and this will give you a great chance for a captivating photo from an event.
This is one of my favourite photos from the Brighton Pride event recently which I only noticed because I was searching for moments of emotion - it’s a passionate kiss that encapsulates the love and joy of the day.
4. Think Series
When you’re photographing an event it can be all to easy to constantly search for that one stand out image and to be fair events give a great opportunity to capture that one stand out photo, however events are layered and have a lot of elements to them and that’s why it pays off to think in a series rather than single images. Think about how your photos might compliment each other to tell a story of the day if you see them in a series. Look for some epic ‘hero’ images sure, but also think about capturing details, something left on the pavement, a tattoo or face paint, a hand holding a flag, someone dancing on a pole. Also wider shots, people on a roof, a crowd all with their hands in the air. A mix of perspectives, angles and framing in your photos from the day will make a much more compelling story when viewed as a series.
5. Composition
Don’t forget about composition. Events have one fun moment after another and it can be easy to get wrapped up in it all trying to capture those moments, but events have so much going on all the time that they can also offer the opportunity to work a bit slower and get more creative with your composition then perhaps you’d have time for on a normal day on the street. I’m not going to get into composition in detail here but just have it in the back of your mind next time you’re photographing an event, how can I elevate my photos of the great things I’m seeing by trying to capture them in the most compelling composition possible. This will also help add variety to your images which as we’ve already discussed can really help them look more exciting when viewed as a series.
For example here rather than capture a front-on photo of this person’s outfit I made the creative choice to use the wings of the outfit from the back to frame their head, which has resulted in a kind of abstract image that I really enjoy and is a bit different to the usual event photos you see.
6. Remove the Context
What if you’ve just stumbled on an event by accident, or perhaps you only have half an hour free to try and get some shots? In that case forget about trying to document the whole event through a series of images and instead focus on getting one or two interesting shots from the event. One way of making a great photo from an event more powerful is to get rid of the context and show the photo at a later date. If you only have time to make one image, try and capture something from the event that is unusual or weird and don’t include the context of where it was taken. Once viewed without knowing it was taken at an event this can prompt more questions from a viewer and make a more powerful photo. As the Magnum photographer Richard Kalvar has put it so well before “Context is the enemy”.
For example in this photo you see a man dressed in what looks like a camouflaged sniper outfit outside a block of flats on a phone, weird right? There’s no context to explain what’s going on which to me is what makes it interesting. When I tell you it’s someone that’s just walked out of a parade and up some steps to get a better view, I give the photo context and it looses a bit of what made it interesting in the first place.
7. Enjoy Yourself!
Events are usually fun and light hearted, even protests can be very moving and can be enjoyable in a way, so it’s important to just enjoy the experience as much as trying to document it. Get wrapped up in the event, interact with people, talk with them, take the portrait, smile and enjoy yourself - if you’re having a good time it’s likely to show in your event photos. Events make such great places to practice your street photography but don’t forget just because it’s an event it doesn’t mean you can just shove your camera in everyones face, be considerate and respectful and always offer to send someone the photo if they ask to see it.
While events can offer up great photo opportunities you might feel a bit stuck on how to go about getting that ‘street look’ from your event photography so that’s where this article comes in.
