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Conference photography, How NOT to Do It

Page history last edited by PBworks 17 years, 2 months ago

Conference photography, How NOT to Do It

VERY ROUGH DRAFT

by Jerry W

 


 

Planning:

First of all planning, including consent/non-consent to be photographed, video and audio recorded in the registration procedure, as was done and expected based on the regional Northern Virginia conference at Arlington Library in December 2005.

 

Events:

Events like weddings are a one time deal, though they may reoccur, that event doesn't.

You get one shot, so to speak... Camera problems, tough, recording tape problems, tough, missed the shot. The person moving too much for a digital camera, tough. Missed the shot...

 

Staffing:

Recording a conference is not a hobby, but work, likely requiring paid work as well.

The level of effort required to get good visible results (and the quality of pictures are immediately visually appearant) should not be taken lightly...

Attending and photographing a conference are mutually exclusive, and is not really possible.

Particularly multiple breakout workshops make it physically impossible to be many places at once. Plenary (large group) sessions in a large auditorium may allow some advance setup, but capturing across many rooms, floors and in different lighting situations is a group and/or professional activity...

 

Presenters:

Many presenters are hams, like attention and publicity and like to be photographed, if done well. It was noticed that some presenters were aware of the camera and played towards it... Not bad in any way, but noted...

 

Lighting:

Getting proper lighting in a room is very difficult. Using a flash disturbs others, but photographing without walking into the middle of a presentation (especially given seating and a center and only walkway aisle), given low light and zooming to get mostly a closeup of the presenter without a tripod or reserved seating in front (but requiring going to other rooms as understaffed and unplanned)...

 

Beware:

Many conference locations have a reflective screen behind the presenter which can throw off any automatic lighting adjustment (especially with a digital?)...

Other places have lighting on the wall which is right behind the people whom you are trying to photograph and may need to be adjusted in advance...

 

Audience:

Attendees generally are not as interested in being photographed or recorded, but are the people that make a conference... Add to that situation a historical mental health and disabilities "poster child" mentality and you've got a problem, or possibly a crisis...

 

Including people from the back of a conference room or auditorium would likely get the backs of their heads, which may or may not be uniquely identifying. (Personally, having lost some hair over the last few years, I might be a little shy of even being included that way) but in order to recognize someone, you would likely need to have known the person previously, and may not be identifying. Cropping out an audience can take a lot of editing time. Speakers may have stock photos that can be used to replace. Comic substitutions for those that do not wish to be in photographs, like the blurry or blue dot effects sometimes seen? Smiley faces? Frowns?

 

Funding:

Photographs and recordings are good evidence of an event. Over time, people's memories fade (sometimes quickly), but a photograph could bring it all back quickly. Possible uses of this for funding are worth investigating...

 

Selecting and/or Editing:

Selecting and/or editing photographs may be the only solution. I might show pictures to everyone involved and edit out the worst ones before distribution? Starting from a complete record, just the highlights, or Hollywood's view? For example, does anyone really need to see 100 photographs of a 4 day vacation trip? (mine have been called 'boring' but could be the viewer?...) Or 30 minutes video of a 3 day trip? (e.g. video.google.com look for On the Canal w money preview shot And who cares about someone else's vacation pics anyway? But I got a tshirt ;-)

 

Conclusions:

Asking someone to photograph or even sharing photographs taken is work, not a hobby.

I'm not really a photographer, just a guy with little memory, especially at events which remove sleep in the planning, funding, scheduling and operating.

 

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Comments (1)

Anonymous said

at 2:03 pm on Aug 14, 2006

take a photography class please

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