Tips for conference photography

Conference photography mainly involves three places: the sign-in desk, the VIP room and the main venue.

1. Take an empty shot. General panoramic shooting venue, VIP room and sign-in desk layout. Special details shooting (venue decoration), such as: close-up of trophies awarded prizes.

2. shoot the sign-in desk. The guests took a panoramic photo of the check-in process, and the etiquette lady wore a corsage close-up for the important leaders. Special attention should be paid to the arrival, signature, welcome and handshake of leaders and distinguished guests.

3. Shoot the VIP room. Mid shot, talking with leaders or VIPs, including greeting and exchanging business cards. Generally, the venue will be explained in combination with the background furnishings.

Have some tea and have a rest. Tea break is mainly about shooting scenes where guests talk at will, generally using the middle scene.

5. Shoot the speeches of leaders and VIPs. At the beginning of the meeting, the host opened with a close-up shot. The table is generally too high to be photographed in front, otherwise the table will only show a head and look bad. The correct shooting angle is 45 degrees. Don't connect the microphone to your mouth or block the leader's face. Also, it should be noted that there can be no background dividing line on the leader's head. This scene is basically close-up, and you can also have a panoramic view when you speak. Need to pay attention to the snapshot of the leadership expression. Panoramic photography of participants. Only professional photographers can shoot difficult pictures, such as the handwriting on the slide, the dynamic picture of the bartender's action, the speeding motorcycle show and so on.

6. Take a group photo. Taking a group photo is different from taking minutes of the meeting, and the requirements are very high. The requirements for the number of people and indoor and outdoor lighting environment are very high, and it is also important to have a standing shelf. Post-production is also very troublesome, not simple amplification! Need to do fine shading adjustment, add text, scan fees, and repair photo defects (such as closing eyes). Generally, photographers have familiar color expansion shops, which can enjoy preferential prices or even exempt some fees. The most important thing is to ensure the quality of the photos. Shoot the banquet. It is mainly about scenes such as performance shooting, game shooting, toast between leaders and VIP, interaction between actors and audience, etc., and attention should be paid to the vividness of the picture.

7. Arrange and adjust the shooting plan temporarily according to the requirements of the organizer or the change of conference activities.

Preparation before shooting

First of all, ask the company that arranged the photo task clearly about their ideas and requirements so as to make a draft. In addition, the required camera materials should be prepared one day before shooting, and then put them into the camera bag one by one, fully charge the battery, and bring enough spare batteries and film. It is best to arrive at the shooting site one day in advance to check the size, lighting, guests and their seats. Clothing should also be prepared accurately, and suits and ties should be worn in international conferences, and so should large and medium-sized domestic conferences. You should get a badge from the organizer for easy access.

Pre-meeting shooting

On the day of the meeting, you should arrive in advance and arrange all kinds of equipment properly. The official shooting starts from the sign-in desk, and all the shots signed by important guests should be filmed. When important guests sign in, the staff will wear corsage for them, so it is easy to identify who is the VIP. Before the meeting, the main guests should rest in the VIP room and take photos of the guests shaking hands and talking with them. I like to add another flash next to the camera and connect it with the flash bracket SK-7 (or connect it with the handle bracket of Yaqi flash). When in use, the flash at the top of the machine is facing people, and the flash next to the machine shines on the roof or wall, and the shadow behind people is eliminated by the reflected flash.

Conference shooting

When the conference officially begins, it is necessary to shoot the host, the applause of all the delegates, the panoramic view of the podium and the panoramic view of the venue. Then there is the speech at the conference, and every speaker has to shoot it. For panoramic view, I usually set up an extra flash to flash for many times, and put another flash at a distance of 10 meter with a tripod, so that the photos taken will not be dim just because the people in the front rows of the camera are on, which is closer to the actual situation of the venue. This kind of multi-flash lamp is connected with a synchronizer or uses the remote flash synchronization function of the flash lamp itself. If someone else is taking pictures at the venue, it will often trigger your flash, and when you need to take pictures, the flash is charging. In order to solve this problem, we should ask someone to turn on and off the flash, or wait until everyone has basically finished filming, and then take your time. In addition, Minolta's flash is specially equipped with a frequency selection switch, so that you can choose the frequency that only your flash can trigger and others' flash cannot.

Those who set up sub-venues should shoot one by one. In seminars, projectors are often used to display information on the screen. If you shoot with a flash, the screen will be white, which is not in line with the atmosphere of the live speech. At this time, you can turn off the flash, shoot with the live light, or tilt the flash head to the audience, avoid the screen, and synchronize the exposure with the slow flash.

used when a series is over

Take a group photo as a souvenir, shoot the last speech of the conference, come to the group photo site quickly before the speech is over, and make all preparations (including setting up a tripod, adjusting the focal length of the lens, taking pictures, etc.). ). The delegates are coming one after another, so you should greet them to their seats (there are often lists on the chairs in the first row) or form a formation. According to the principle that the depth of field is small before and large after, the focus of the lens should be aimed at the second and fifth rows of all horizontal rows near the camera. It's best to use 120 camera to shoot about 100 people. If the requirements are not too high, you can also use the 135 camera. Recently, the X-PAN camera produced by Hasselblad has the shooting function of 65x24 width. In addition to taking scenery, it is especially suitable for taking group photos. It has both the advantages of high definition of 120 film and the advantages of economy and convenience of 135 film. In particular, its flat long frame is the most suitable for the horizontally arranged photo format.

One way to add words to a group photo is to directly find a photo agency for bronzing when enlarging it, but it is expensive and takes a long time. Another method is to write the commemorative words of the meeting on black paper with a white pen, and then shoot them with black and white film, and then superimpose them with the picture and give them to the photo agency for amplification. I also found another way, that is, I typed the required text on the computer screen, changed the background color as needed, and then photographed it with a camera. After the negative film was developed, I used a blade to cut off the redundant parts below the words, then used a blade to cut off the unused parts above the people in the photo, then spliced the words and the picture as closely as possible, then taped the two sides together and sent them directly to enlarge.

After some meetings, state leaders or some heads of state are arranged to meet the main guests of the meeting. I am filming in Xinjiang Hall of the Great Hall of the People. First, a plenary meeting will be held in Shaanxi Hall in the morning, and a meeting of key figures will be held in Hainan Hall in the afternoon, and the meeting will be held at four o'clock. As a photographer, after filming the last speaker, he should immediately leave the venue and arrive at the reception hall, and make good preparations before filming, such as changing new film, checking batteries and installing flash lights. When the Chief Executive came to the hall, he greeted everyone, and after a few kind words, the formal interview would begin immediately. Guests will automatically queue up and shake hands with the Chief Executive one by one. At this time, you should take a photo of the host and guest shaking hands. According to the requirements of the conference organizer, decide whether to shoot only the first few or all. When taking a group photo, the head of the delegation and the guests stand on the steps placed in front of the screen and can take pictures. I usually take four photos, as long as I stretch out four fingers, people and heads at home and abroad can understand what you mean.

Shoot a banquet

First, film the conversation between the host and the guests in the VIP room. After the guests enter the banquet hall and take their seats, you should find the location of the main table and focus on shooting the VIPs at the main table, such as their conversations with each other. After the banquet begins, the guests' speeches, the panoramic view of the hall and the guests' toasts should be photographed.

In terms of equipment, I think it's best to use an autofocus camera, which is fast and convenient. The lens is 24-85mm or 24- 120mm, and most of them are competent. A 20-35mm or 17-35mm lens is required for panoramic shooting.

All kinds of meetings should be taken with photos, and students from all schools should take photos when they graduate. Therefore, it is necessary to understand and master the technical skills of taking group photos.

A good group photo should meet the following five requirements:

1 group's picture layout is reasonable and substantial.

2 The front and rear rows are not covered.

Everyone in the front row and the last row knows it.

4 The front row is big and the rear row is small without perspective deformation.

5 There is no case of closing eyes.

To achieve the above five points, we must master the following shooting essentials.

1, the standard lens should be selected.

The viewing angle of the standard lens is the same as that of the human eye. Taking a group photo with a wide-angle lens will have perspective deformation. The front row characters are bigger near the lens head, and the back row characters are smaller away from the lens head. So you can't take a group photo with a wide-angle lens. If you take a group photo with a zoom lens, you should also choose a 50 mm focal length segment.

2. Selection of aperture and shutter speed

The characteristics of group photos are: the figures are still and deep. In order to obtain greater depth of field, small aperture and slow shutter speed are usually used. F/5.6 ~ f/8 aperture should be used for group photos of 20 ~ 30 people; 60 ~ 70 people take pictures with F/8 ~ F/ 1 1 aperture, and more than 100 people take pictures with f/16 aperture. The shutter speed should not be lower than 1/30 seconds, so as to avoid sudden personal jitter during shooting. Of course, in the case of poor light, in order to ensure sufficient depth of field, we have to sacrifice the shutter speed, but generally it cannot be lower than 1/8 seconds.

3. Use tripod and cable to release.

Because taking a group photo requires a large depth of field, a small aperture is often used for shooting. At this time, the shutter speed is slow. In order to prevent "hand shaking" during shooting and affect the clarity of the picture, a tripod must be used to stabilize the camera.

4, in order to avoid the front and rear rows of occlusion, the front and rear rows of slopes should be large.

When taking a big group photo, it is best to line up with tables and chairs, which can make the front and back rows more compact, thus making more effective use of the depth of field and taking clear photos. The arrangement of the queue is generally the first row of sitting stools, the second row of standing on the ground, the third row of standing stools and the fourth row of standing tables. If there are more people, you can squat in the front.

If you use the stone steps in front of the building to take a group photo, it should be noted that no matter how many people, you must stand on the next floor in line (that is, there should be a layer between the front row and the back row) to avoid the front row blocking the back row.

Taking a group photo as a souvenir, composition is very important. You can't put too many stools in the front row, resulting in a slender formation, small portraits and ugly composition.

Generally speaking, the number of stools in the first row of group photos can be calculated by the following formula:

Number of stools = number of people photographed /5

For example: 100 people take a group photo, and the number of stools = 100/5 = 20, that is, 100 people take a group photo, and 20 stools in the front leadership seat are enough.

If you take a group photo of more than 100 people, it is best to put the tables and chairs into an arc with the camera as the axis, because the clearest focal plane of the lens is on the arc with the lens focal length as the radius. Therefore, if the arc queue is used for shooting, there will be no situation that the characters on both sides of the group photo are not very clear, thus ensuring that the characters in the middle and on both sides are equally clear.

5, the choice of light

Soft natural light is more suitable for taking group photos, and try to avoid direct sunlight and backlight. The time should be from 10 to 4 pm. Don't take pictures in the shade, lest you draw your face.

6. Focus selection

According to the principle of depth of field, the lens should focus on the front 1/3 of the whole queue depth. For example, there are five rows of people, focusing on the characters in the middle of the second row, so that the foreground depth and depth of field can be used more effectively to take a clear group photo.

7, composition method

The composition layout of the group photo requires a wide top and a narrow bottom, leaving a little space on the left and right to fill the picture as much as possible.

8. Pay attention when taking pictures.

Before shooting, see if there is any front row blocking the back row in the queue. If there is, adjust the position. Raise your hand before pressing the shutter to remind everyone to avoid closing their eyes or shaking. In addition, the first group photo should avoid nervousness, and the focus should be on accurate exposure, accurate focus and accurate composition, otherwise any small mistakes and mistakes will cause irreparable losses, because most of the photos are irreparable.