For many years we have undertaken digital communications services for a variety of organisations. From website and graphic design to social media and much more. We’re very accustomed to working with universities and professional associations.
Our photography and video work extends this offering by documenting your conferences, workshops and other events and activities. We love to shoot in a candid style, capturing the day as it happens, so that you can tell a story to your audience.
The assets you need
In the modern age of social media communications, organisations need to be developing publishable content from their activities. In capturing your event our aim is provide you with a host of artefacts for use and reuse across your online presence.
A full-day event could provide you with a several short videos, a set of varied photographs, audio for a podcast, some banners showing quotes over photos and more. Social media never ends, and a healthy stock of content will serve you well. Our years of experience in design enables us to capture flexible content that can be used and reused for web banners, posters, social posts and much more.
Photography
We take a documentary approach to capturing events, standing on the sidelines and trying not to have any effect on what is happening. We don’t use flash or photograph intrusively. What we do is get a variety of angles, from close up shots of presenters to wide shots of the room, as well as capturing active moments, people interacting with one another, smiling etc.
Conferences and events come with their own challenges for photography and video. Rooms are often dimly lit and projector screens turn presenters into silhouettes. There may be no natural light and a plethora of objects to try to avoid, such as fire exit signs, bins, water bottles and handbags whilst fluorescent lighting plays havoc with shutter speeds. We will navigate these challenges to the best of our abilities, but you should be aware that depending on the venue it is likely that the resulting images won’t look like they were captured in a studio.
Video
If capturing video interviews with participants it will be useful if you could assign a person to act as interviewer in these situations, or prepare a list of questions that we can use. The former is more effective, as having somebody there with subject and organisational knowledge will be better able to get the most out of the interviewee. When planning for the day it might be useful to identify a room that can be used for video interviews if these are to be in-depth. Short clips with participants can be captured effectively at the sidelines of the event. As with photography, we don’t like to scare people with huge lights and equipment, as people often aren’t at ease with this set up.
Consent
It is important that your guests have agreed to appear in photos. A great way to deal with this is ask them on arrival to sign a consent sheet. For me it is ideal if those that do not wish to be in photographs could be identified, perhaps with a small sticker on their badge.
What we need to know before the event
It would be ideal to know the following in advance:
- The venue and which room the event will take place in. Photos of the room would be very helpful.
- Where the parking facilities are.
- What the full agenda/programme is for the day.
- Provide a copy of your brand guidelines if available and if these have guidance on imagery.