VERY urgent! photographing at school event.

[z999]

i'm going to shoot my first real event at the school my mom is teaching at. it's called a literature day and all kinds of writers cone at the evening and talk to the pupils. do you have tips? (i have a point and shoot) i also prepared my tripod and my home-made flash diffuser.

[Nicole]

1. Breathe ;)
2. Read this article on Environmental Portraits (http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/environmental-portraits/).
3. Breathe again ;)
4. Make sure your batteries are charged or you have spare batteries.
5. Make sure you have as many memory cards as you can.
6. Don't delete shots until you get home.

The kind of photos I think I'd want to see / take at this sort of event would be kind of closeups of the authors. If they're reading to the kids, then take a shot where you get the author and are able to show the book. If the kids are listening intently, get a shot of a child. I think that closeups work much better than wide angle shots because it gives a sense of intimacy and being there. You might want a shot or two of the crowd if there's a large one, but I think the focus works best where there's only one or two people in a shot (obviously that doesn't apply if you're taking more posed shots where you have a group of people you want together). I'm not sure what kind of camera you have, but if you can put it in portrait mode, that would probably be a good start for the settings.

So, to sum up, pictures of individual authors doing their thing, pictures of children enjoying the evening, the required group shots (authors, teachers, students), a few wide angle shots, and above all, breathe ;) Hope that helps.

[jiminyClickit]

z999,

And be sure to include your Mom in a few, it's the Law.