DamianHarty.com

Damian and Linda's Photography

f8 and Be There!

When you have a complicated camera, people often ask you to "take some pictures" for them at an event. I used to (and still do) love photographing events. There are some easy golden rules:

• Don't try to learn a new skill/camera/lens etc "under fire" - practice beforehand in a non-critical situation
• Pay close attention to people - event photography is as much about people-watching as it is about anything technical
• Take lots of pictures but only show people the good ones
• Develop self-confidence to interact with people when you have a camera
• Think carefully beforehand what story will be told with the pictures, and tell that story consciously

The "f8" quote is widely used (and surprisingly difficult to trace to its originator) in any kind of photography that is somewhat difficult to plan and contains fleeeting moments. You can read in more detail what the "f8" part means, but to obsess about that is to miss the point of the quote, which basically means "make your best guess at the settings you need, then go and pay attention to what's going on."

Personally I try to set up the camera in the most flexible way to be able to deal with anything that emerges. Usually that means a zoom over prime lenses, a camera that is great in low light (there are many of those now, but 10 years ago they weren't so common) and a strobe (flash).

The key thing for me, to give people confidence in me, was never to fuss with the camera. If you have to, make settings changes quickly and decisively, then keep shooting.

And don't show people your bad photographs!