Photographing a Lecture

[wulf]

Last night I took my camera along to the start of a new lecture series (Joint Ventures) at my place of work. I wanted to share some reflections on taking shots of people in this type of environment (and also to garner tips from others):



Camera: Nikon D40
Exposure: 1/60s
Aperture: f/2.5
Focal Length: 90mm (Vivitar 90mm f/2.5 lens)
ISO Speed: 800

You can view the full set but I particularly liked the image above, during the question time at the end of the first lecture. As well as capturing the main subjects in good focus, it has some movement as they pick the next question.

Reflections:

- Fast glass is good. I used my 50mm and 90mm lenses wide open or nearly wide open.

- Narrow depth of field is a challenge but the distance helps

- Lighting is a challenge - it would have been easier if there was a spotlight on the speaker! (flash would have been scuppered by distance and also been distracting to the audience)

- High ISO is your friend. Make sure the picture is well exposed though.

- I was able to hand hold these shots and didn't loose too many due to camera shake. That gave me a lot more flexibility to move than I would have had with a tripod.

- You have to take lots of shots. Freezing moments of time makes you realise how often the speaker's face is in an unflattering position and needs to be discarded even if focus and exposure were dead on

- Don't take too many shots in one place. In a relatively quiet lecture, it has got be annoying if a photographer stands next to you and keeps firing away!

- Make use of other elements of the scene, such as the audience or projection screen, to give some context to the speaker

What else might be useful for me to chew on for next time (October for this series but there are plenty of other lectures and seminars going on in the department)?

Wulf